The Neo-Marauders and the Philosopher Stone
by Frostic Blitz
Summary: The night that the Dark Lord came to the Godric's Hollow he found not just one, but three children that pertained to the prophecy. Lily and Alice gave their lives and sanity to defend them, and James, Sirius and Frank were left to raise them. Now, raised by Aurors and Marauders the children are starting Hogwarts, and their adventure is just about to begin. Please R&R.
1. Chapter 1

The sharp whistle of the scarlet Hogwarts steam train screamed through the air, sounding like the call of a dying falcon, and James Potter wondered for, not the first time, how the Muggles on the other side of the barrier never heard a thing. He glanced around at the crowded platform, taking in all the Witches and Wizards sending their children off to school for the year.

This was James, and his families, first foray back into the Wizarding World…well at least into the British Wizarding World. Maybe they should have sent the kids to Salem instead like they had talked about, but the kids wanted to got to Hogwarts, the school their parents had went to, had had all their adventures in. Everything they had done until this point had been to protect the children, and they never really got any say in where they went or what they did, so letting them go to their parents school was the least they could do.

Besides, a small part of him couldn't wait to hear about the look on Severus Snape's face when he discovered that a Longbottom, a Potter, and a Black where all attending Hogwarts, and in the same year to boot. That alone made this decision worth it.

James was knocked out of his revere when someone punched his arm. He looked to his left, and brown eyes met the gray eyes of his best-friend, Sirius Black.

"All right there, Jimmy?"

"How many times have I asked you **not** to call me that, Padfoot?"

"Only about as many times as I've called you that, Prongs." Sirius' grin was wide and unrepentant, causing James to roll his eyes and smile in response.

"Where have Frank and the cubs gotten to, we haven't even been here ten minutes."

Sirius laughed and jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of a small food stand that was selling snacks and drinks of different varieties. "Kestrel bet him that no one would recognize any of us once we stepped onto the Platform. She won, obviously, so now he's buying them some snacks for the train to tide them over until the trolley witch goes through."

"You'd think that Frank would have learned by now not to make bets with _any_ of the children."

"And that's where you'd be wrong."

James and Sirius turned around to see Frank Longbottom, a clean cut man with close cropped dark brown and equally dark eyes. He had a small amused smile on his face and one hand on the shoulder of a slightly pudgy boy of 11. Neville Longbottom was Frank's son and only child, he had light brown hair, only slightly longer than his fathers and the same coloured eyes set in a rounded face. Standing next to Neville were two more children, a boy and a girl, both wearing matching mischievous grins.

Sirius turned a fond fatherly smile on all the children before turning a stern face onto the girl. Well, he was trying for stern, but it mostly looked as if he was trying not to laugh. "Now kids, that wasn't a very fair bet. We haven't stepped foot in magical Britain since you three were barely toddlers. What have I told you about playing fair?"

Kestrel grinned up at her father, grey eyes dancing merrily. "But Dad, Marauders never play fair."

Sirius blinked down at his daughter, silent for a few moments before letting out a sharp bark of laughter and ruffling her long dark hair, making it look like a birds nest. "That's my girl."

They all glanced towards the scarlet steam engine as it gave another shrill whistle, warning students and parents that the train would soon be departing.

James crouched down so that he was eye level to all three children. "Now remember what we taught you, and I'm not even going to bother telling you three to try and stay out of trouble. Just don't get expelled."

"No promises."

"True Marauders." Sirius clapped James on the shoulder hard, almost knocking the other man over. "They'll be fine Prongs. Let them go have fun, learn new things, get into trouble."

"Alright Padfoot, you're right. Okay you three off you go, before the train leaves without you."

Three voices coursed various farewells as they hurried to the train, jumping up into a car just as the engine gave a lurch, signalling its imminent departure. They ducked into the compartment that they had claimed earlier, the first one to the left of the door. In their rush to get inside they did not notice that they nearly knocked over a blonde haired boy their age, and the two troll-like boys who were with him. Kestrel threw open the window and stuck the upper half of her body out of the compartment, waiving to Sirius, James, and Frank. She was joined soon after by Harry and Neville, who had opened the other window. The three friends waved until Platform 9¾ was just a speck in the distance, then pulled themselves back inside and closed the windows.

Kes pulled out the latest copy of '_Hogwarts: A History_', opening it to a section that showed a rough map of the castle and it's grounds, and she and Harry proceeded to argue about what part of the castle they should explore first. Neville pulled out their Herbology text book trying to drown out the sound of his two best friends bickering.

They hadn't been in the compartment for more than ten minutes when the door flew open and an ill-tempered looking girl with red hair looked in. "Sorry to barge in like this, but do you mind if I join you? My brothers are driving me mad, and I'm afraid that if I have to sit with them for the whole train ride, I'll be expelled before the train even makes it to Hogsmeade."

Neville hid his laughter behind his book while Harry and Kestrel laughed outright. She managed to wave the girl in through her laughter. "Come on in, the more the merrier. I'm Kestrel, this is Harry, and the boy behind the book is Neville."

"Wotcher." Both boys coursed.

"Thanks. I'm Ginny; it's nice to meet you."

Harry yelped as Kes snapped the book shut, nearly taking his fingers with it. "Watch it, would you?"

"Whoops, sorry Harry."

"Sure you are." Kes stuck her tongue out at him, an act that Harry expertly ignored as he turned around to face Ginny, who was taking a seat next to Neville. "Out of curiosity, how many brothers do you have?"

"Heading to Hogwarts? 4. In total I have six. There's me and my twin brother Ron, then the older twins, Fred and George, then Percy, and Charlie and Bill have both already graduated."

"Bloody hell six brothers? I can hardly handle these two some days. How do you manage it?"

"Being fearless and not being afraid to throw the first curse." The red-heads glib comment quickly brought the other three to tears, and they spent the next two hours trading stories of their respective families and their antics.

"…And Harry was stuck wearing my skirt the rest of the day, because Dad and Uncle Frank couldn't figure out what it was I'd done to make it stick!"

Ginny wiped tears from her eyes as she tried to get her laughter under control, the colour that stained Harry's cheeks not helping her regain her composure.

"Sure laugh it up; I still plan on getting you back for that, Black."

"Try it, Potter."

Ginny's laughter abruptly came to a halt as she looked between her three new friends. "Black…and Potter?" She pointed between each in turn then looked over at Neville. "Would that make you Neville _Longbottom_ then?"

Neville nodded, a little unsure on whether or not he wanted to answer.

The smile on Kestrel's face faded slightly as Harry turned to face Ginny head on. "Does it really matter what are last names are?"

"What? Oh…No! Not at all. I was just a little surprised is all. I mean you guys have been talked about for years, and no one has seen you since…" she let her voice trail off, not wanting to finish her sentence and knowing that she didn't have to. Didn't want to remind them of what was probably the worst moment of their lives.

Ginny hastened to reassure the other three after seeing the sceptical looks. "Really, I swear I won't treat you guys any different. I was just surprised that's all. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable…I, I can go if you would rather…"

The three friends looked at each other before looking back at the now very nervous and embarrassed red head. "I'll just go th-"

"Ginny wait." Ginny paused halfway out of her seat, glancing down at Neville's hand that had grabbed her elbow to stop her from leaving. "You can stay; we didn't mean to make you feel unwelcome."

Harry nodded as he leaned back in his seat, "Nev's right, Ginny. We're going to have to get used to people treating us differently just because of what are names are."

"Yeah, even though we're no different than any other child our age. Though, I will admit, we are much more awesome than the average 11-year-old."

"Shut up, Black." Ginny laughed as Harry and Neville pelted Kes with Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, she could only laugh and raise her book to defend herself. The rest of the train ride passed pleasantly as they shared more pranks that they had pulled and discussed what they wanted to do once they got to Hogwarts.

"Well our Dads," Harry motioned between himself and Kestrel. "Were quite the pranksters when they were at Hogwarts. Neville, Kes and I are rather gifted in the area ourselves, so we have made it our personal goal to out due our fathers' reputations at Hogwarts and became known as the most inventive pranksters the school has ever seen."

"You'll have a bit of competition for that title. My brother's, Fred and George, have been the resident "Prankster's in Chief" since their first year, following in the footsteps of their idols, The Marauders."

Ginny could only stare as her three new friends all broke out in an uncontrolled fit of laughter. Harry was laughing so hard that he had fallen out of his seat and onto the floor of the compartment. Kestrel joined him several moments later, having slowed her decent by holding onto the compartments window frame. Neville was able to regain control of his laughter first and managed, between gasping breaths, to explain their reaction to a now annoyed looking Ginny.

"Sorry Ginny, it's just…the Marauder's are…woo! Okay." He finally managed to calm down enough to breathe and talk normally. "The Marauder's, known as Moony, Padfoot and Prongs, are none other than Harry and Kestrels Fathers and Uncle. You see, Prongs is Harry dad, James. Padfoot is Sirius Black, and Moony is Remus Lupin."

Ginny smiled in understanding, but tilted her head in confusion. "I noticed that you're missing one, Wormtail. Who was he?" Ginny pushed her back against her seat at the sudden angry faces the other three were now wearing. "Did-did I say something wrong?"

It was Harry who explained this time. "No, well yes, but it's not your fault, you didn't know. Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew, and he is the **rat** who betrayed our parents, and is the reason that mine and Neville's Mum's are dead." He pushed himself back to his feet, then reached a hand out and pulled Kestrel to her feet.

"I'm sorry, I hadn't realized…"

"We know Ginny, that's why we aren't mad at you." Harry reassured the upset redhead. "It was an innocent question and you had no idea that it would affect us the way it did." Ginny nodded and her posture relaxed a great deal. Maybe she would look up what happened in the wake of Voldemort's downfall, to prevent insulting or angering her new friends anymore than she already had.

"Anyway," Harry began bracingly. "Back to lighter topics. As good as I am sure your brother's are at the fine art of Pranking, I can, with great certainty, say that they will never as good as the Marauders were, or as we intend to be."

"So you really do plan on challenging Fred and George as the best Pranksters in school?"

"You bet we do, we already have a list of them that we want to get a head start on next weekend."

"Oh! I just had an idea that you might want to consider?"

"Really?" All three raised sceptical eyebrows at the redhead.

"You know who the Marauder's are, Fred and George don't. I wasn't kidding when I said that they were my brother's heroes. They practically worship they ground the figuratively, and I guess literally, walked on. If you can figure out a way to not only tell them that you know about the Marauder's, but that you _actually_ know who they are, and then **don't** tell them how you know them? It will drive them bloody mental!"

"That's actually not a bad idea."

"And like Uncle Remus always says, sometimes the best prank can be pulled of with the simplest of things." Harry and Kestrel grinned at one another before turning to Ginny. "If we can figure out how to pull it off we will definitely do it."

"Brilliant."

"So…..you want to see our Prank list?"

"Yes!"

They spent the next hour or so pouring over their list with Ginny, who put in ideas of her own, or helped with ways that they could pull off some of their pranks without getting caught by members of staff or other students.

Their conversation was once again interrupted by their compartment door sliding opening, revealing three other first year students. Two looked like the descendants of trolls, with foreheads nearly as wide as their shoulders and vacant, menacing expressions on their faces. The third was a thin blonde boy with a sharp nose and bright blue eyes.

It was the blonde that spoke after he swept blue eyes over the four, in what he probably thought was a superior look, but just made it look like he was constipated. "I've heard that Harry Potter is in this compartment. Are you him?" He pointed at Harry who merely raised a black eyebrow at him.

Before he could reply Ginny spoke up, "It's rude to point you know. Didn't your mother teach you any manners?"

The blonde sneered again, and gave Ginny a quick once over. "No need to ask who you are? Red hair, freckles, and hand me down robes, you must be a _Weasley_."

Ginny went nearly as red as her hair, but this time it was Neville who spoke. "The same could be said about you. Blonde hair, superior attitude, and a face only a mother could tolerate? You must be a _Malfoy_." Neville matched him sneer for sneer.

"And just who are you?"

"Really, you think he would have done his homework, if he knows who Harry is, right Neville?" Kestrel pointedly turned to look at Harry as she spoke.

"You're right Kes. Really Malfoy, do try and keep your facts straight."

"Wait…you're Harry Potter?" He pointed, again, in disbelief at Neville.

"Yes."

"Then who is that?"

"I'm Neville Longbottom."

"Impossible!"

"I know my own name! Now go away, we were having a splendid conversation before you came in and ruined it. Take your troll-like friends with you and go back to your own compartment."

"Hey, we aren't trolls."

"Yeah."

"Merlin's Beard, they speak." Kestrel looked at Malfoy with awe. "How ever did you train them?"

Before Malfoy or his bodyguards could respond, a pompous voice called from further up the carriage. "What's this now?" A tall redhead boy, with a Gryffindor Prefect's badge pinned to his collar, pushed is way into the compartment, making it very crowded.

"What is going on here?"

"She called us trolls!"

Both boys were pointing at a bewildered looking Kestrel. "I did no such thing."

"Yes you did."

"Technically it was me, and what I actually said was 'troll-like'. I did not in fact call you trolls."

"And you're Name is?"

Harry cast a quick look at Neville, who smirked in reply, nodding slightly.

"I'm Neville Longbottom."

"Well Mr. Longbottom, please kindly refrain from calling fellow students, trolls, or troll-like, or any other form of insulting names. And you three." He turned to face Malfoy and his cronies. "Please return to your compartment, you're crowding up the hallway."

Malfoy glanced over the Prefects shoulder and over his own, seeing a few students who had been trying to get passed scowling at them.

"Fine, but this isn't over Longbottom, not nearly. Come Crabbe, Goyle." He spun on his heel and marched up the train, back the way he had come, the now named Crabbe and Goyle on his heels.

Silence once again reigned in the still cramped compartment for a few moments more before Ginny spoke up. "Thanks Percy."

"You're welcome Ginny. But in the future please try and not antagonize Malfoy. We'll be at Hogwarts soon; I suggest you change into your robes." With that he left the compartment and continued on his rounds.

"One of your brothers I take it?"

"Yes, he's the middle brother, and different than any of the others, he is much more rule oriented. You'll have to be careful when Pranking with him around. He's Fred and George's favourite target, so he's always suspicious."

"Right."

"So, how long do you think it will take Malfoy to realize that you are in fact, Harry Potter and not Neville Longbottom."

"Oh, he'll found out when we're sorted I suppose, but it'll be a good laugh until then."

The boys changed into their school robes first, and then exited so the girls could do the same. About 15 minutes later the train slowly started to come to a halt. Their Hogwarts letter had told them to leave their belongings on the train and they would be transported to their dorms once they were sorted.

Exiting the train they got their first of many looks of Hogsmeade Station, thought they couldn't see much in the dim moon and starlight. A booming voice cut through the loud chatter of the students, commanding attention. "Firs' years! Firs' Years, this way!"

A crowd of nervous, shaking, overwhelmed 11 year olds made their way over to a very large man. To their eyes he was easily as large as a house, with a large black beard, and beetle black eyes, peered out from underneath eyebrows as bushy as his beard. "Righ', then, is this all o' ya? Excellent, follow me, if yer please, down to the boats."

The followed the large man down from the station along a twisting path that skirted around the edge of the woods. As the got further away from the noisy station they could hear the gentle lapping of water against rocks and the distant splashes of creatures jumping in water.

-They reached the edge of the lake five minutes after leaving the station and most of them eyed the rickety looking old boats with unease. "Righ' you lot, four t' a boat. No shovin', there'r enough boats fer everyone."

Harry, Ginny, Neville, and Kestrel all shrugged at each other and claimed the boat nearest to them, climbing in carefully so as not to tip it over. Once seated, Ginny cast a quick look around for her twin, Ron. She saw him sharing a boat with two other boys and a bushy haired girl.

As soon as all the first years had made it into the boats, the large man climbed into a final boat, this one empty, and raised a crooked looking pink umbrella above his head. "Forward." With the command all the boats jerked slightly and started moving out onto the body of the lake, cruising quickly but gently along the still water. There wasn't much talking from the first years during this leg of their journey, most were worrying about how the sorting was to be conducted, others were admiring the clear night sky, and others were quietly talking among themselves so as not to disturb the silence that had descended over them.

The silence was only broken once, and it was by their guide. "If yer look now, you lot will see your firs' glimpse o' Hogwarts." A sea of heads looked up suddenly as they floated around a corner, and at this point if they had been talking, they all would have been struck mute at the sight before them. Seemingly rising endlessly into the sky was a grand old Castle. With turrets and bridges, and so many windows, Hogwarts looked like its own night sky.

"Welcome t' Hogwarts!"


	2. Chapter 2

"Welcome t' Hogwarts!" Hagrid's voice was loud in the quiet night and boomed across the Black Lake, the sound even reaching the boats at the end of line.

Sooner than some would have liked the boats arrived at the bank below Hogwarts and their lumbering guide ushered them all into a small side door, that it did not like he would be able to fit through. Indeed he had to duck so far he was practically bent in half, but squeeze through he did. The attention of the new First Years was once again dragged to another source, this time towards the stern voice of an older looking women, greying brown hair done up in a no nonsense bun and dressed in emerald robes, and a pointed black hat perched on her head. "All First Years accounted for Hagrid?"

"Yes Professor McGonagall, e'ry one of'em."

"Thank you, Hagrid. I'll take them from here."

"Righ' ya are, Professor." The man, Hagrid, nodded his head and exited out through the door that the Professor must have come through.

"Your attention please." She waited for them all to look at her. "Good. In a few moments I will lead you through this door and you will be sorted into your houses by our Sorting Hat. There are four Houses at Hogwarts, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, so named for the four founders of Hogwarts School." At this point she fixed each student with an uncompromising gaze. "Once you are sorted into your houses you are expected to conduct yourself in a manner that will bring honour and respect to your house. If you have any questions you may ask your Prefects or your Head of House. Now, for two lines please, gentlemen on one side, ladies on the other."

Just as she finished speaking the door behind her swung open on its own and Professor McGonagall spun on her heel smartly and led the way through into the crowded Great Hall of Hogwarts. The new students followed silently in two single file lines, the boys' line only slightly longer than that of the girls. The Hall that had been filled with the sounds of muttering students fell into a silence that was almost oppressive with how the intent the older students were on the newest batch of First Years.

They stopped as soon as the Professor did, and she turned to them once more as she unrolled the scroll she had been carrying. "The hat will first sing its customary song and then I will call your name and you will sit on the stool. You will place the Sorting Hat on your head. You will then be sorted and head to your House Table, making way for the next student."

Once she was sure everyone understood the instructions she turned back around to await the Hat's song.

The four new friends watched as the decrepit, mouldy looking hat seemed to straighten up. A puff of dust exited out of the slit along its brim as it coughed, it then proceeded to sing in a rather deep voice for a hat:

Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,  
>But don't judge on what you see,<br>I'll eat myself if you can find  
>A smarter hat than me.<br>You can keep your bowlers black,  
>Your top hats sleek and tall,<br>For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
>And I can top them all.<br>There's nothing hidden in your head  
>The Sorting Hat can't see,<br>So try me on and I will tell you  
>Where you ought to be.<br>You might belong in Gryffindor,  
>Where dwell the brave at heart,<br>Their daring, nerve and chivalry  
>Set Gryffindors apart;<br>You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
>Where they are just and loyal,<br>Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
>And unafraid of toil;<br>Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
>If you've a steady mind,<br>Where those of wit and learning,  
>Will always find their kind;<br>Or perhaps in Slytherin  
>You'll make your real friends,<br>Those cunning folk use any means  
>To achieve their ends.<br>So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
>And don't get in a flap!<br>You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
>For I'm a Thinking Cap!<p>

The students, new and old all clapped politely and McGonagall once again turned to face the new students. "I will now call your names to be sorted."

"Abbot, Hannah."…"Hufflepuff!" cried the Hat.

And so on down the list it went, each student walking up to the rickety looking stool and placing the threadbare hat on their heads.

"Black, Kestrel." A hush fell over the student body and staff alike and Kestrel gulped, shrinking back slightly against her friends, black hair paling to a washed out gray with her nerves, causing even more whispers. Neville placed a hand on the small of her back and whispered encouragingly in her ear. "Go on, you'll be fine."

She nodded hesitantly but straightened her back and marched up to the stool glaring at students and staff alike daring them to make a comment about her name. She placed the hat on her head and sat down, the only thing betraying her nervousness was that her hair was still gray.

"Hmmm…what's this now, a Black? I didn't know Sirius had a child, very interesting. Very interesting indeed. Now where to put you, where to put you. Such a bright mind, so eager to learn, so much potent-" the hat suddenly cut itself off as if something had interrupted it. She sat there in confused silence for several minutes before the hat started speaking again, and when it did it seemed rather testy. "Fine! You interfering pile of boulders. Well then Black looks like you're going to, GRIFFYNDOR!"

Kestrel hopped off the stool and placed the hat back on top, making her way over to her cheering, but wary housemates. She took a seat at the end of the table and hoped Harry, or Neville, or both got sorted into Gryffindor, so maybe they could explain to her what the bloody hell had just happened.

"Bones, Susan….Hufflepuff!"

"Boot, Terry….Ravenclaw!"

"Crabbe, Vincent….Slytherin!"

"Finnigan, Seamus….Gryffindor!"

"Goyle, Gregory…Slytherin!"

"Longbottom, Neville." Kestrel ignored the whispers that followed Neville as he approached the stool, and instead sought out Malfoy. She had to stuff her fist into her mouth and duck her head under the table to hide her laughter at the look on his face. She did not notice two redheads further up the table giving her curious looks. Once she managed to control herself she turned to watch Neville's sorting, looking just in time to see a look of confusion come over his face, which probably matched the one she had worn earlier. The hat sounded even more annoyed than it had with her when it once again called out, "Gryffindor!"

The sorting continued, Kestrel, Neville, and Harry who was still in line, all snickered at Draco Malfoy's sorting, the hat had barely touched his pale blonde head before loudly declaring, "Slytherin!"

A few more students went through before McGonagall called out "Potter, Harry." Another silence fell over the student, though this one seemed to fill up the hall, as all eyes turned to watch Harry ascend to the stool and gingerly place the hat on his head.

Harry's sorting to longer than any other student, and the whispering of students slowly, but steadily began to fill the hall. After about ten minutes he was starting to look annoyed. He finally got a cross look on his face and glared upwards towards the Hat, obviously telling it to get on with it.

"Gryffindor!"

Harry whipped the hat off the top of his head and slammed it down on the stool's seat and stalked off to sit with his siblings at his new House table, the chanting of 'We got Potter!' by two boys who the three decided had to be the elder Weasley twins, drowning most other noise in the Hall. "There is something terribly wrong with that Hat."

"We know." Neville and Kestrel said together.

"We'll talk about it later, when there are less people around."

Harry nodded and watched as the remainder of the students were sorted.

After what seemed like an eternity, McGonagall finally reached, "Weasley, Ginerva."

She walked confidently up to the stool and swung the Hat up to her head, plopping onto the seat. And much like Malfoy's sorting it was short, though with an outcome that greatly pleased her brothers, "Gryffindor!"

Ginny looked slightly confused but beamed and putting the hat back on the stool, raced to the Gryffindor table where she was quickly embraced by her enthusiastic brothers, and Percy shook her hand importantly. Ron was quickly sorted and he too joined his siblings in Gryffindor and like Ginny was warmly welcomed. She extracted herself from her brothers as the last student was sorted, and Blaise Zabini joined Slytherin House.

Ginny walked down to the end of the table and joined her friends, just as a wizened old man was rising from the Staff table, moving to stand behind a shining gold podium in the shape of an owl with outstretched wings.

The hall quieted as he raised his hands. Once everyone was silent he smiled happily out at all the gathered students. "Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! For those that do not know I am your Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Now, before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

With those words the four long house tables were suddenly laden with all kinds of food and drink, and with much laughter and cheering the students did as they were bid and 'tucked in'. Various conversations floated around the table, old friends recounting what they had done over their summer holidays and new students introducing themselves to one other.

A boy with a thick Irish accent was piling chicken onto his plate as he was explaining how he came to Hogwarts. "I'm half-n-half. Dad's a Muggle and me Mum's a witch. It was a bit of a nasty shock for him when he found out."

The girl Ginny had seen riding in the boat with her brother spoke next, "Well neither of my parents are magic at all. It was ever such a surprise and I was so excited that we went straight to Diagon Alley and bought all my school things. I read all my books over and over again all year."

She looked like she was about to get a second wind, when the Dean Thomas, who was sitting next to Seamus spoke up. "My parents aren't magic either, they were surprised too and a little worried, but excited all the same."

The friendly chatter of the Gryffindor first years was interrupted by the nasally tone of one Draco Malfoy, who once again was joined by Crabbe and Goyle, along with Blaise Zabini. "You lied to me, Potter"

"No, I told you a falsehood,"

"That's a lie, Harry."

"Really?" Kestrel nodded at the messy black haired boy, a small smile on her face.

"Oh, well then. My apologies, Dad always taught me better than to lie."

"Then why did you –"

"Technically I lied to you first, I was the one who called him Neville; Harry just went along with it."

"Yes, but why?" Malfoy actually seemed confused by the sheer fact that someone would lie about their name."

"It was just a spot of fun," Neville shrugged. "Don't get your knickers in a twist over it, Malfoy."

Still with a look of bewilderment on his face, Draco turned and headed back towards the Slytherin table, Crabbe and Goyle tagging along like loyal dogs. Harry turned and looked at the gathered first years, "You'd think no one has ever pranked him before?" Everyone in earshot laughed, though not unkindly and went back to their feast.

Kestrel put down her fork and turned in her seat to face Blaise. "Hey, Blaise how was the rest of your summer?"

The dark skinned Italian boy grinned and dropped onto the bench next to Neville, who made some space for the Slytherin. "Great! We went to Greece about a week after you left and went and took a tour of a Hippocampus sanctuary. You guys would have loved it. Oh, Nev, before I forget, Mum's sending me some of the photos we took of the plant life they had their, she new you'd like some."

"Brilliant, thanks Blaise."

Their conversation was interrupted by a rude noise made by Ginny's twin, Ron. "What is a stupid, slimey Slytherin doing here? Ouch Ginny!" Ginny was glaring at her twin, but Kestrel spoke before she could give her brother a verbal dressing down.

"Blaise happens to be family; my mum and his mum were sisters. We've know him since we were all in nappies. I'm not turning my back on family just because of some stupid colours and emblem on my robes."

Ron withered under the weight of not only his twins stare but that of Harry, Kestrel, Neville, and Blaise as well.

"Well I should get back to my own table anyway. I'll talk to you guys later."

"Ok, by Blaise."

The conversation seemed to flow much easier after that, everyone finished introducing themselves as they ate a very satisfying meal, and were all very close to being full when dinner was replaced promptly with dessert. Harry and Kestrel both lunged for the treacle tart only to be beaten to it buy a quick moving Ginny.

"Oi!"

"Sorry, too slow. You're going to have to be quicker than that to beat this witch." She smiled at them and turned to take a large bite out of her tart only to find already halfway into Neville's mouth.

"Hey!"

"Sorry, Weasley. You snooze you lose."

"I'll get you back for that Longbottom." She threatened archly as she reached for a double fudge brownie.

It seemed that all too soon the desserts disappeared as well and Dumbledore rose once more to stand behind the podium and address the students.

"I have just a few announcements to make before I send you all off to your nice warm beds.

"Firstly to our First Years, and to some of the older form who should know better, the Forbidden Forest is off limits to all students.

"Secondly, and new this year for all, the third floor corridor on the right side, is off limits to those who do not wish to suffer a most painful death. And lastly, the Defence Against the Dark Arts position has been filled this year, by our very own Professor Quirrel. I know you'll all wish him the best in is new position.

"Now off to bed with you, pip pip!"

Percy rose from his seat further down the table, calling down as he stood "First Years follow me, if you please."

Percy led the gaggle of ten new Gryffindors out of the great hall and up and through the castle. Neville kept a mark of land marks along the way, while Kestrel wrote down the turns they took, as Harry dictated them to her, guiding her along by a hand on her elbow.

"What are you guys doing?"

Neville looked up as they reached a long stretch of corridor and glanced over at Ginny. "Well our dads made a map when they went to school here, but the lost it in their Seventh year, so we plan on recreating it, but first we need to learn our own way around the school. So when ever we go anywhere we plan on taking notes so that when we create our map, it'll be accurate."

"Fred and George have a map. It's a really cool bit of magic, shows them all kinds of secret passages and stuff."

"Wait, you're brothers have the – of course they have the map, how else would they know about the Marauders? We are such idiots."

"No you're not, Neville. I didn't mention the map to you when I told you about the Marauders, so if you're an idiot then so am I."

"Well," Harry started as the stepped onto what Percy was saying was the last staircase before the tower. "We're either all idiots, or none of us are. Frankly I don't like thinking of myself as stupid, so I'm going to go with not an idiot."

Before any of the other three could answer back the group came to a halt outside a portrait of a rather large women dressed in a pink dress, and holding a glass of red wine.

"Password please, dears."

"Caput Draconis."

The painting swung open revealing a tunnel and a cozy looking room beyond that. They all filed in after Percy and got their first look of the Gryffindor Common Room. The floors were stone, like the rest of the castle, but it was covered by many warm rugs and there were chairs and tables, and couches scattered everywhere, creating different places to study, read or just sit and talk. There was a large, extravagant fire place set in the far back of the room closest to two twin staircases that led up in opposite directions.

"Right, those stair cases lead up to your separate dormitories. Girls are on the right, boys to the left. The password for the tower changes regularly, you will be told when it does by a Prefect. I suggest that you all head to bed, breakfast is at 8 sharp and you'll want to be down early to get your timetables. Good night." Percy turned and headed up the stairs, keen on taking his own advice and getting an early night.

Harry turned a questioning look on Ginny. "Is your brother always so…"

"Prattish?"

"Not the word I was going for but he's your brother."

"You're too kind. Yes, he is always like that, Percy would probably marry the rule book if he could. He's only gotten worse since he got his Prefects Badge."

"Well I think I'm going to take his advice either way and turn in, I'm knackered." Kestrel's proclamation was proven true when she let out a massive yawn, her jaw popping a bit in the process. "Ouch! Well night all." Kestrel waved and followed the other three girls already heading up the right hand staircase. Ginny was close behind her, waving her own farewell to the boys. Neville and Harry bit back their own yawns and trudged up the stairs towards their dormitory.

The dorms were circular, with five poster beds around the room, end tables between each, and their trunks at the foot of their respective beds. They five boys changed silently and crawled into bed. Luckily most were out as soon as their heads hit the pillow and did not have to worry about trying to fall asleep over the snoring of one Ronald Weasley.

There was a bit more chatter in the girls' dorm as they all got ready for bed, but they were just as tired and did not talk for long. Kestrel and Ginny lay awake a bit longer than their dorm mates. "Hey, Ginny? You awake?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Had a question for you, you looked confused after the Hat sorted you. Can I ask why?"

"Hmm, oh yeah. The Hat seemed to be arguing with someone as I lowered it onto my head, all I heard was 'I suppose you want this one with the others then. Fine, Gryffindor!' It was really strange."

"Yeah, Nev, Harry, and I had some similar experiences." Kestrel went on to explain what had happened to her and her brothers, and the two girls ended up chatting late into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Eight in the morning came much too quickly and the three siblings found themselves trying to stay awake and not fall asleep in their porridge. Harry's eyes were still closed as he mechanically slathered a piece of toast with strawberry jam and -peanut butter. Kestrel had finished her plate of eggs and bacon and had pillowed her head in her arms, giving up trying to stay awake and decided to get a few more minutes before their first class of the day. Neville seemed to be in agreement, as he was using Kestrel as a pillow as he ate an apple.

Ginny could only shake her head at her friends. "I take you three are not morning people?"

"What was your first clue, Weasley?" Harry opened one green eye to glare at her, and had to close it again, disturbed by seeing how awake she was. "How can you even be awake at this time of the day?"

"Easy, I have six brothers, all of whose rooms are above mine at home. When they run down them for breakfast it sounds like a herd of Hippogriffs." She shrugged her shoulders a bit as she cut up her pancakes. "Besides if you want any chance of getting food before Ron gets to the table, you need to be up early."

"Oi, I heard that, Ginny."

"You were supposed to hear that, dear brother."

Whatever Ron might have been about to say, was cut off by the arrival of their Head of House, Professor McGonagall, as she handed out their timetables for the year.

"Messer's Potter and Longbottom and Misses Black and Weasley, here are your schedules. It would suit you well to memorize them." Kestrel and Neville both just held their hands out for their paper, not even bothering to raise their heads. The Professor just shook her head and laid the papers on the table and moved onto the next group of students, none of them noticing the small smile that graced her usually stern features.

Ginny being the only one with her eyes open read out their timetable. "Looks like we have Herbology first thing, followed by History, then lunch then we have Transfiguration and DADA." Her three friends made noise of understanding but remained as they were. Ginny chuckled and set about eating another rasher of bacon, and continued to look over their schedule for the week.

Ginny's perusal of her schedule was interrupted by the arrival of hundreds of Owls. Two owls swooped down towards the four seated Gryffindors, and Ginny lifted her plate out of the way so they would have a place to land. One was a beautiful snowy white Owl with bright golden eyes.

This one landed in front of Harry and started to lightly peck at his hand to get his attention. "Oh, good morning Hedwig. You got post for me this morning?" He scratched the owl around the neck while untying the letter from her leg. "Here you go girl, have some bacon."

The second owl was larger than Hedwig, and had two tufts of feathers sticking up above its head, it was a mottled brown colour and like Hedwig, his eyes were gold. This landed in front of the sleeping pair; he cocked his head from side to side before pecking their hands, though not nearly as gentle as Hedwig had been.

"Oi, ow! Stupid ruddy owl."

"Barnabas, that hurt!" The owl just squawked indignantly and held out his leg -impatiently, waiting for one of them to take the two letters he carried.

Neville took the letters while Kestrel nursed her sore hand, "Why can't you be a nice Owl, like Hedwig?" As soon as the letters were free Barnabas hooted loudly and smacked Kestrel with his wing as he took off towards the rafters and out of the building. "Stupid bloody owl."

Neville patter her shoulder and handed her her letter from her father. "Thanks Nev." Silence reigned in the hall as children read their letters from home. Most were probably well wishes on getting into whichever house and reminding children to write home.

Kestrel opened her letter carefully, and as expected immediately regretted it. There was a flash and a crack and a cloud of smoke obstructed Kestrel from view. Before Harry or Neville realized what had happened they had opened their own letters and were given the same treatment. When the smoke was cleared all three were covered in red and gold glitter and had the word 'Congratulations!' in bright blue written on their foreheads.

The Great Hall filled with laughter as the three new Gryffindors spat glitter out of their mouths, and tried to salvage what they could of their breakfasts. There was a note sitting in between them and Ginny reached for it with her fork, poking at it to see if it too was booby trapped. After several pokes and jabs with nothing happening, Ginny felt safe enough to reach out and open the small folded piece of paper.

"_Dear Pup, Cub, and Prongslet,_

_Congratulations on being sorted into the Noble house of Gryffindor. We are all very proud. Of course we would have been proud of you whichever house you were sorted into (Except for Slytherin!){Shut up Padfoot, Andy was in Slytherin remember? She turned out all right.}(Don't throw your logical arguments at me Prongs!) Both of you shut it. Anyway, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted…we're all proud of you and hope you have a good term. We'll see you at Christmas, and don't forget to write._

_Neville, your dad sends his love and congratulations too; he got called into the office late last night and so was unable to contribute to this letter._

_Take care,_

_MPP, and Frank._

_PS: the glitter will vanish before your first class of the day._"

Harry poured himself a new glass of pumpkin juice, giving up getting all the glitter out of his original cup as a bad job. "They realize that we're going to have to retaliate, right?"

"Hmm…yes, they'll be expecting it."

"True, we'll have to be sneaky. We'll discuss more at lunch."

"Agreed."

"I take it that this happens a lot?"

"At least once a week, sometimes even once a day during the summer hols. Having pranksters like our father's for parents, there was never a dull moment growing up."

"I can imagine. Fred and George used to have prank wars with the oldest brothers, Bill and Charlie, when they were still at home."

The bell sounded in the Great Hall, signalling that students should start heading to their first classes of the morning. Neville drained his cup and pushed away from the table, stretching as he went. "Well shall we head down to the greenhouses?"

"You would be excited that Herbology is first."

Neville just shrugged and grinned at his friends as they too stood up from the table. A few students were still snickering at them as the walked buy on their way to the main entrance.

Harry glanced up at the Head Table to see if any of the teachers were going to say anything. The only one he caught looking there way was their Head of House, and he could have sworn that for a moment, her slight frown of disapproval was actually an amused smile. He shook his head, rationalizing that he probably had some glitter in his eye and it was making him see things.

As they exited the main doors the glitter abruptly vanished, leaving them, as promised, in their clean school robes. They made there way without any further incident to the Greenhouses were they were joined by the Hufflepuff first years.

They were not left waiting outside long, as soon as the bell sounded again in the distance signalling that class was starting the door to Greenhouse 1 swung open, revealing an plump older witch, with frizzy flyaway, black hair, shoved under a wide brimmed straw hat that had seen better days. Dirt covered gloves covered her hands, matching the dirt that stained her sunny yellow robes.

"Right this way chaps, in you get. Two students to a table please."

Everyone filed in Hufflepuff down one side and Gryffindor down the other. Ginny walked over and paired up with Ron, not having seen much of him since she got on the train. Kestrel watched as Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil partnered up, leaving the last girl Gryffindor, at workbench by herself. Kes waved to Harry and Neville, who were talking to their other dorm mates, Seamus and Dean, and went and joined Hermione.

"Hi, I'm Kestrel Black." She knew that she introduced herself last night but decided to do so again anyway, to be polite.

"I'm Hermione Granger, nice to meet you."

"Attention, please everyone. Welcome to First Year Herbology. Today we will be going looking at the Flitterblooms, a non-violent cousin of Devil's Snare. We're going to be repotting them as they have gotten to large for their current containers. You may talk amongst yourselves, but try and keep the noise level down. There are several plants in here that are sensitive to high concentrations of sound."

Students kept there talking to whispers and the occasional call to a friend down the table.

Kestrel struck up a conversation with Hermione while the dug out there oversized Flitterblooms out of its current pot. The plants vines were clinging to the pot tightly as well as tugging at their hands, trying to make them let go. The vines were soft and felt similar to velvet. Between the two of them the managed to get it out of its pot and into the much new, much larger one next to them on the floor.

Kestrel and Hermione shoved their hair out of their faces and glanced around the greenhouse to see how their classmates were fairing. Kestrel chocked on a laugh as Neville wrestled their rather cheeky plant into the new pot, and Harry tried to grab his glasses. Their Flitterblooms had taken them in an effort to delay its transplanting.

Harry made one last desperate leap and managed to snag his glasses back from the defeated plant. He grumbled as he cleaned the muck off his glasses and placed them back on his face. "I would get the plant that's also a bully."

"Yes well if you hadn't had poked it with your wand to 'see what it would do' that probably wouldn't have happened."

"Oh, come off it Longbottom. You know that pretty much every plant, magical or not, has it out for me." Neville opened his mouth to argue, but Harry cut him off, "Do you remember last summer, for your birthday we went to those Botanical Gardens in London? Do I have to remind you of the 'Rose Debacle'?"

"…Right. Never mind."

"Are you're friends always so…immature?" Hermione turned a questioning look on Kestrel as she brought over another plant for them to transplant."

"It's not so much immaturity as it is an ability to find something funny in any situation. And in Harry's defence plants really do have it out for him. He avoids the garden at home like we have Dementors in the bushes."

"I see…what in the world are Dementors?"

Kestrel spent the rest of the class, as they transplanted two more Flitterblooms, answering Hermione's questions about the Wizarding World.

"There's so much to learn about being a witch. How am I ever going to manage to learn it all?"

"That's the beauty of Magic, Hermione. You never are going to learn it all; even if you lived for ever you would still discover something new about magic everyday."

"Wow…that's…thank you Kestrel, that actually took a very large weight off my mind." The bushy hair girl said with a genuine smile on her face. "I thought that being a Muggle-born, I'd be at a huge disadvantage. And I am, I do realize that, but having someone who has grown up in the Wizarding world, tell me that there is no possible way I could ever learn everything about magic, has really helped."

"You're welcome, Hermione. Look I'm going to go and catch up with Harry and Nev. How about every time you have a question that you can't find an answer to, you ask me, and if I can't answer it, then I'll write to my Dad and Uncle's and ask them for the both of us? Deal?"

"Deal!"

"Great, see you in History." With a final wave and a smile Kestrel jogged to catch up with her friends, Ginny joining her along the way.

"You're a mess, Potter."

"Shut it, Weasley."

"Oh, hold still a second, would you." She double stepped quickly to get in front of Harry, pulling out her wand as she went. She pointed it at him, making a sharp jabbing motion, "_Scourgify_!"

With nary a pop all the dirt and grime on Harry's robes and glasses vanished as if it had never existed. "Brilliant, thanks Ginny. Why didn't I think of that?"

"I don't really think you want an answer to that Harry." Harry glared at Kestrel as she walked passed him into the castle, headed for the passage that would lead to the staircases. They took a few wrong turns but managed to make it to the History classroom before the bell rang.

If they were expecting an interesting account of the Magical History of Britain, there were sorely disappointed. The spent the hour long class, listening to a monotone ghost drone on and on about Goblin wars. Which by its self should have been interesting, but Harry was sure Professor Binns could suck the life out of all the Dementors in Azkaban, with how much enthusiasm he showed about his subject.

DADA was at least more interesting than History, but much less entertaining than Herbology had been. Professor Quirrel had a very pronounced stutter that made it very hard to understand a word the man was saying. Everyone made sure to take careful notes and most vowed to make sure to read the appropriate chapters in their texts before every exam, because they were definitely not going to learn much from Professor Quirrel.

In fact the only exciting thing to happen in DADA was near the beginning after Quirrel had taken roll and turned his back on his students. Harry clapped a hand to his forehead and hissed in pain.

"Harry!"

"You okay mate?"

Neville, Ginny, and Kestrel were all looking at him in concern. Harry just waved them off. "Later, it's nothing, my scar just hurt for a second."

"Your scar?"

"It's never done that before has it?"

"No never. I'll write to Dad about it tonight. Let's just take notes and pray that this class goes fast."

The bell hadn't even finished signalling that class was over and it was now time for lunch, and Harry and his three friends were rushing from the class room, eager to get away and talk, and get something to eat.

They claimed the very end of the Gryffindor table and immediately started loading up their plates with sandwiches, fruits, and some bread. Once the noise level was sufficient enough to drown out their conversation, Neville turned and fixed Harry with an overly concerned look, "Okay, so what exactly happened with your scar?"

"Right. It was after Quirrel took roll, I was still looking in his direction as he turned around, and so instead of looking at his face, I was looking at his turban. As soon as his back was completely to me my scar burned. It…it felt like someone placed a hot coal on it for a second, but from the inside and only focused on my scar." He traced a finger down the lightning bolt an annoyed look on his face.

"And this has never happened before, your scar hurting?" Ginny asked, intentionally clanging her fork loudly against the golden plate as two Ravenclaw third years walked behind them on the way to their table.

"No, not ever…Actually, no, that's not true. It happened at the Welcome Feast too, though I just passed it off as a bit of a headache at the time." He glared at Kestrel and Neville who were giving him exasperated looks. "Don't look at me like that, you two. It only lasted for a moment. I didn't notice whether or not Quirrel was looking in my direction or not though."

"That's very strange."

"That's not the only strange thing that's happened so far here. The Sorting, remember."

Kestrel nodded and swallowed the bite of her ham and cheese sandwich. "I'd almost forgotten about that. When I was being sorted it was like some one had cut the Hat off while it was deciding where to put me."

Neville and Harry both nodded in agreement.

"I think it may have been the Castle itself."

"Why do you say that, Kestrel?"

"After it had been interrupted trying to Sort me, it was silent for a few moments then said, 'Fine you interfering pile of boulders! Well Black, looks like you're headed to Gryffindor.'"

"Why would Hogwarts interfere with our Sorting?"

"I dunno? Let's hit the library after transfiguration this afternoon and look up to see if it's done something like this before. I'll write Dad about too when I write and tell him about my scar."

With that out of the way they started in more earnestly on their lunches. They were soon joined by the other first years. Seamus and Dean had gotten lost on their way down from the dorms, and were regaling the others with their misadventure with a large red eyed tabby cat.

"Oh that'd be the Caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris." Fred Weasley said as he walked by with his twin. "You'll want to be careful around her; she's a nasty piece of work, just like Mr. Filch. They're always on the prowl for students up to no good."

Harry grinned up at the two older students sensing an opportunity to implement Ginny's idea. "You sound like you have some experience in that field. I'm Harry Potter by the way; these are my brother and sister, Neville Longbottom and Kestrel Black."

"Nice to meet you." They said in unison as they took a seat on either side of Kestrel and Neville. "And we do." Started George.

"You are looking."

"At the current Hogwarts"

"Resident Pranksters"

"In Chief!" Again finishing the sentence in unison. Ginny, who was used to their habit of finishing each others sentences, amused herself with watching Harry, Neville, and Kestrel's heads moving back and forth as each of her older brother's spoke, like they were watching a tennis match.

Kestrel put her chin in her hand and gazed up at the taller Gryffindors, with what looked like admiration. "Really, that's so cool. But you say current, implying that there were other Pranksters before you? Like who?"

"There have been numerous pranksters and practical jokers throughout Hogwarts' illustrious history."

"Right you are George. But never has there been a more inventive, a more genius, more brilliant group of Pranksters, than the Marauders!"

"Truer words have never been spoken Fred, truer words."

"Oh them, they're no big deal." Harry waved his hand in dismissal as he poured himself some tea.

"Yeah, the Marauders are old news. I thought you were talking about somebody cool, not those trickster wannabes." Neville sighed in disappointment and turned back to his lunch taking a bite of his sandwich.

"No big deal?"

"Trickster wannabes?"

"You take that back."

"What makes you two experts, anyway?"

"If you can't take the truth boys, don't ask the hard questions." Kestrel warned them, shaking a chunk of French bread at them.

"You make it sound like you know them." Ginny had by this point busied herself making another sandwich and had her back turned so her brothers wouldn't see her laughing.

Taking a page out of the elder twins' book, the three answered together. "We do."

"What!"

"How?"

"Who?"

"Explain!"

"Well we've known them since we were very young you see. They're friends of our father's; they were all in the same year as one another here at Hogwarts." Harry explained patiently, turning his attention to some of the desserts that appeared on the table.

"So you know their names then?" Fred asked shrewdly, eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion. They way he phrased the question made the answer seem simple enough, but the three knew that it was a test to see if they were indeed telling the truth.

"Of course we do."

"Well then, what are they?"

They sighed and once more replied in unison. "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs."

Fred and George could only stare at the three first years in stunned silence. The only other person they had told the names of their idols to had been their best friend, Lee Jordan, and Ginny, and Ginny hadn't known them long enough for the Marauders to have come up in conversation.

"You know who they actually are?"

"You've met them?"

"Course, they're friends with our parents."

"Can you introduce us?" Harry was pretty sure that if there had been room for those two to kneel at the table the twins would have been doing so.

"I don't know, they don't really like to be bothered, right Nev?"

"True, they're, how did they put it? 'Respectable members of society now, and should try and put all the Pranking nonsense behind them."

Kestrel manages to bite back a laugh, but accidently inhaled some of her juice and ended up choking. Neville patted her on the back until she could breathe normally again.

"Give up Pranking?"

"The Marauders?"

"Never!"

"We refuse to sit here and listen to your slanderous campaign."

"Indeed we do Fred. I say good day to you!"

With that both twins stood up and walked over to where Lee Jordan, and some Third Year girls were sitting, leaving the four First Years to themselves. Harry shrugged and motioned with his head that they should leave the Great Hall, his mouth twitching ominously. They still needed to swing by Gryffindor Tower and collect their text books for Transfiguration. Neville and Kestrel picked up their sandwiches, both obvously fighting not to laugh, and Ginny stuffed a bright red apple into the pocket of her robe and followed her friends out of the Hall.


	4. Chapter 4

It was only once they were halfway to the Tower that they finally gave into the laughter they had been trying to hold in since the twins had sat down. Ginny was leaning up against the wall, using it to support herself as she slid down to the floor, holding her sides. Harry was lying on the stairs fist stuffed in his mouth, and Neville and Kestrel were holding one another up as they laughed.

"Oh my god, I can't, can't believe that they reacted like that. You'd think that we insulted their children!" Neville dissolved into giggles again, gripping Kestrel's elbow to hold her up as her knees started to give out on her.

Ginny wiped some tears from her eyes. "I can! When I told you that they really look up to the Marauders, I wasn't kidding."

"Oh, Merlin…we need to see how far we can take this. When I write to Dad tonight telling him about everything, I'll mention this too; see if he has any ideas for us."

The others nodded and Ginny and Kestrel pulled themselves up from the floor. Ginny dusted some the dust off the back of her robes and said, "C'mon, we better hurry if we want to get to the Tower and still make it to Transfiguration on time. McGonagall does not look like a Professor that we want to cross."

Thanks to some moving staircases, and Harry's disorganized personality, the four friends only just managed to slip into the Transfiguration classroom as the bell was sounding. They grabbed the closest tables and hastily pulled out their books, parchment, quills and ink. Luckily it seemed that the Professor had yet to enter the room, the only other living thing in the room, besides the students, was a gray and black tabby cat. It had odd square marking's around its eyes, and was sitting on the desk, tail swishing back and forth. A few moments later, Ron and Seamus ran into the room, huffing in gulps of air.

"Bloody stairs moved on us at the last moment and we had to take the long way around." Ron complained as he and Seamus dropped into the only two available seats, right at the front of the classroom. Without warning the tabby leaped from the desk, and in mid-leap transformed from a cat and into Professor McGonagall herself.

Harry and Kestrel both pointed at her in astonishment, "You're an Animagus!"

"Yes I am, and Mr. Weasley, I'll appreciate if you would watch your language in my classroom from now on."

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, as it is your First Year and first day of classes, I shall give a pass on tardiness, in the future however, I will remove House Points. Now, to why you are here." She turned and faced a chalkboard that was situated next to her desk, waving her wand; the word '_Transfiguration_' printed in white chalk appeared on the board.

"'Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." With that she turned again and once more waved her end, ending with a tap on top of her desk, which promptly changed into a very large pig and then back again.

The mixed class of Ravenclaws and Gryffindors applauded politely and received one of McGonagall's rare small smiles.

'Before we begin practicing any form of Transfiguration, you will copy down the 'Fundamentals of Transfiguration' that have been written on the board, another quick wave of her wand and the board expanded and filled with words. "After that is complete, your first task will be to turn matches into needles. While you are copying the notes there will be no need for talking, unless you have a question. Understood?"

A chorus of "Yes, Professor," sounded back at her.

"Good. You may begin."

It took nearly 45 minutes to write all the notes down, but soon enough everyone had finished and McGonagall began handing out matches to everyone. "Now, do not become frustrated if you cannot perform the spell immediately. Transfiguration is one of the hardest forms of magic to master. As you become frustrated, your magic will fight you and you will have even more trouble with the spell, and it will continue on in a vicious cycle. Stay calm and keep trying, you will not be penalized if you cannot perform a spell."

Once everyone had a match she demonstrated how the spell should be preformed. "Picture what you want the match to do in your mind, visualize very clearly, and tap your match with your wand. If you have done it correctly your match will turn into a needle. You may begin when you are ready."

The class was mostly silent as they all tried the spell, most students met with failure, some managed to make their match waver before settling back into the form of a match, no one managed to change their match much at all. The only two who got close by the end of the class, were Hermione and Harry. Hermione's match was slightly gray and had a bit of a point. Harry's match was pointy, but still had the colours of a match.

As they were packing up Professor McGonagall set them to write a foot long essay on the spell, and why what they had tried had not worked, and what they could improve upon for next class.

It was a group of very tired First Years that made their way back to the Tower after Transfiguration. Kestrel dropped face first into the nearest couch, before tucking her bag under her head and curling into as small a ball as she possibly could. "Wake me when the express leaves for Christmas. This was the worst day ever."

"Stop being so overdramatic Black. It was not that bad." Harry said, as he sat in one of the many squashy armchairs that dotted the common room.

"He has a point, it could be Friday." Stated Ginny, sitting down next to the other girl.

"Friday comes before Saturday. How could Friday be a bad day?" She asked.

"Because Friday, is Double Potions with Slytherin House."

Neville paled just a little bit, dropping into another chair. "I think I might be sick on Friday, mates."

"Already planning to skive off classes on your first day? I think I'm proud Fred." The four friends glanced over to where Fred and George had just walked through the portrait hole.

"Indeed George. I'm almost proud enough to forgive them of their most heinous crime."

"Almost, but not quite, dear brother."

"No, not quite."

"You don't understand. Snape was in the same year at School with our Dad's and they hated one another." Harry started, hands waving in his agitation. "I bet you 10 Galleons that he takes one look at me and Kes and immediately thinks that we are our Fathers reincarnated, and he'll give us the worst time out of any other student."

"Twice as bad because you two are in Gryffindor." Ginny said despondently. "I guess I should say goodbye to all the house points we've managed to gain so far now, so I won't be disappointed when the Gryffindor point's glass is empty by Friday's lunch."

Kestrel and Harry just groaned, Kes buried her face further into the couch and Harry tried to see if he could fit inside his book bag.

The elder Weasley twins looked at them in sympathy. "Well look on the bright side," began George.

"You only have the slimy git,"

"Once a week."

"True, but it's still probably going to be a disaster."

The rest of their week went by smoothly, by the end week they had to do an essay for Astronomy, explaining what they hoped to learn in the class, they had done tickling charms in Charms class, and had did more transplanting in Herbology. The closer it had gotten to Friday, the more upset Harry and Kestrel became. They were not looking forward to Potions.

They were down at breakfast picking at their food when the morning post arrived. Hedwig once again landed gently before Harry, holding out her leg and waiting patiently for her letter to be removed. Harry unfastened it from her leg and handed her a piece of bacon. "Hey, looks like Dad finally wrote back."

"Oh, what does Uncle James have to say?" Asked Kestrel asked she pushed her potatoes around her plate.

"I'll read it later, after potions. We should get going. We really do not want to be late for this."

As they trudged down towards the dungeons Ginny tried to cheer up her three gloomy friends. "Hey maybe it won't be that bad, maybe he'll see you as your own individual person and treat you like he would every other Gryffindor?"

"Are you asking us, or telling us?"

"Umm…I don't know. Sorry Neville, I was trying to cheer you guys up."

Neville patted her shoulder in understanding. "It's okay Ginny, maybe you're right. Maybe it won't be that bad.

How wrong Neville was. They had hoped that with the way class began, and the fact that he hadn't even so much as looked at them as he stalked to the front of the room, robes billowing behind him, that they might be spared his ire. They were even suitably impressed by his opening speech.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death..."

It was at this point that he turned his attention to Harry, though he still did not say anything directly to him. He went to stand behind his desk and pulled out a scroll that they assumed was the class list. He began calling out names, taking attendance. He sneered at Kestrel's name and glared at her; she just raised her chin and met his eye as well as she was able. Neville received slightly better treatment. After calling out Pansy Parkinson, he focused once again on Harry.

"Ah, Harry Potter, our new…celebrity." There was a spattering of laughter from the green and silver half of the room and glares from the scarlet and gold.

Kestrel and Neville saw an all too familiar look in his eye and prepared for the fall out. Harry raised his chin and looked Professor Snape dead in the eye. "Is that your round about way of asking me for an autograph, Professor, or are you congratulating me on loosing my mum to an evil wizard who was scared of a little boy?"

Snape's lips thinned with the force of his anger and black eyes flashed dangerously. "20 points from Gryffindor for your cheek Potter!"

Harry was about to protest but Neville stepped sharply on his foot and Harry backed down.

After restoring the class to order, the irate Professor waved his wand and spidery script appeared on the board at the front of the room.

"On the board you will find the directions to brew a simple cure for boils. There will be no need for talking, you have 1 hour."

Harry made sure that he kept up a steady stream of encouragement to Neville, trying to keep quiet. Harry was average at Potions and Kestrel was fairly skilled, Neville on the other hand was dismal at potions, and Snape's sneering and abrasive personality was not helping the boy's confidence. Ginny seemed to have a natural skill at potions and hardly ever had to glance at the board as she and Kestrel brewed at their table.

Just as class was about to end Harry could only stare down at his cauldron in confusion as instead of a stream of pink smoke rising from his potion, the smoke was purple. He looked up at the board and was reading through the instructions when Professor Snape stopped by his table.

"What, exactly, is that supposed to be, Potter?" His voice, while as soft as it had been at the beginning of the class, seemed to hold a certain level of glee at the thought of humiliating the young wizard in front of all his peers.

"A Cure for Boils, sir."

"If that is to be believed, why is the smoke not pink?"

His read through of the instructions had finally revealed his mistake. "Because, Professor, I accidently stirred the potion 6 times instead of only 5."

Snape sneered down at Harry, but said nothing and continued moving on up the rows of tables. Most of the Gryffindors hurriedly bottled their potions before Snape could find something too wrong with it. Both Ginny and Kestrel had managed perfect potions, along with Hermione, and every Slytherin but Crabbe and Goyle. Neville's potion had, thanks to Harry, remained presentable, even if the smoke was a bit more red than pink.

They all quickly handed in their potions and exited the oppressive atmosphere of the Potions room and made it back to the safety of the Tower.

"That was horrible!"

"Look at it this way Nev," Harry said as he wearily sunk into what was quickly becoming his favourite chair. "At least you didn't melt your cauldron this time."

"Hm, that's true. I guess it wasn't a total disaster."

"If his handwriting wasn't so sloppy, I would have done a bit better. I read stir 6 times, instead of five."

"Well, I say we forget about that greasy git, and get to that letter that Uncle James sent us. What d'ya say, Harry?"

"Good idea." He reached into his bag, digging around a bit to reach the letter that had sunk to the bottom of his bag. "Got it!

'Dear Kids,

It's about time you wrote home! Jeez, we were hoping to hear from you way before now. You were leaving your poor parents and uncles in distress! But I digress, let's get to your questions. First off Harry, your scar. This is what is most worrying; I want you to keep a log for the next week of when it hurts, for how long, and the intensity of it. We'll try and track it, and if it all centres around the Professor Quirrel, Sirius and I will come down and talk to Dumbledore about it.

Now to your sorting, I had Remus do some digging, and so far he's turned up nothing on any similar events happening at Hogwarts. I assume that you three are going to be doing your own research, so let us know if you turn up anything on your end.

Lastly to the most important part of your letter, the pranking of the older Weasley twins. I'm going to get Sirius and Remus to help out a bit with this one; you'll likely see the result when the post is delivered tomorrow. Since we figure that Fred and George have the Map and will not be too keen on giving it up, and since you wanted to create your own map anyway, Remus will be sending along a list of the books we used to help us make the map. That will be the only help you will get from us with regards to this.

Well I think I've covered everything…oh right, one more thing in regards to Severus Snape. I know that by know you will probably have had a class with him already. Try not to let him get to you. Ignore him as much as you can and back each other up in class. Neville do not let him get to you, I know that that's a hard thing to do, son, but you're decent at potions if you don't let anything bother you. If you need a distraction to make Snape less intimidating, try picturing him in your Gran's vulture hat!

Good luck with school and don't forget to keep track of your scar, Harry. Kes, get on his case about it if you have to.

Love from,

Dad, and probably from Remus, Frank, and Sirius."

They all kind of stared down at the letter in Harry's hands in slight frustration. "So basically they have no idea what's going on either?" Kestrel asked pulling out her parchment and quill, planning on getting started on her Transfiguration essay that would be due next Monday. Ginny pulled out her own supplies and joined her at the table.

"Looks like it." Harry sighed glumly, sliding the letter back into his bag and pulled out his History of Magic notes for the week, so he could start recopying them.

Neville had finished his essay the other night and his writing was much neater than Harry's, so he was going to read ahead in their Defence text, since the idea of learning anything from Quirrel was a joke. He flipped to the next chapter that they would be working on and pulled the text into his lap.

"We should hit the library sometime this weekend and see what we can drum up on whether or not Hogwarts itself has ever interfered in a Sorting Ceremony before."

The others all nodded their agreement then turned their attention to their studies, wanting to get as much done tonight so that they could enjoy their first weekend at Hogwarts, as well as the last of the summer weather.

Most of their year mates were surprised to the see the four working so diligently. As even though they had only been at school for a week, they had already acquired a bit of a reputation as clowns.

Hermione was also surprised, but pleased as well, to find that she was not the only First Year taking her school work seriously. She walked over to the table they had commandeered for themselves and asked, "Would you mind terribly if I join you?"

Kestrel looked up and grinned at her bushy haired friend. Since their conversation that they had had in their second Herbology lesson, Hermione had become a bit less frantic about knowledge and was a bit more relaxed. Though not by much, she was still all about school work and getting everything finished well ahead of time, but she was calmer about it. "Sure Hermione, pull up a chair."

"Thanks, Kestrel." Hermione grinned and pulled out one of the free chairs, pulling out her own Transfiguration essay.

Ginny glanced at Hermione in confusion, asking, "Hermione, I thought you had finished your Transfiguration essay already?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Then, what are you doing?"

"Hm? Oh! I read a few things in the Library yesterday before supper and wanted to add them to my paper." Ginny and Kestrel could only stare at the three feet of parchment she unrolled, and looked down at their own essays, both just barely over a foot in length. A look of slight panic crossed their faces and they both jumped up from the table and raced to their dorm to grab their Transfiguration text books. They both knew that they had no hope of matching Hermione's brilliance for essays, since what she lacked in practical magical experience she more than made up for with sheer academic brilliance. But there was no way that they weren't going to put in their best efforts to **try** and match their friend.

By the time supper rolled around, Ginny and Kestrel had hit the two foot mark, but found they could add no more without running the risk of repeating themselves. Harry had caught up to Thursdays History class, and Neville had read through almost half of the defence book. They all started to pack up to bring their things back to their rooms, and then had down to dinner. Hermione however was still pouring over her essay.

Kestrel gave Ginny her bag to bring her things up for her, and then tapped the studious girl on the shoulder and Hermione startled, causing both of them to jump. "Kestrel! You startled me."

"I startled you? I think you scared me so bad my hair turned white!" Suiting words to action, she rapidly changed her dark black hair to a bright snow white. Hermione could only stare at her in astonishment.

"That's amazing! How did you do that?"

"Hmm? Oh. It's a magical trait that runs in the Black family. I'm known as a Metamorphmagus. Meaning I can change my appearance at will." Again her hair changed, shaping itself into Hermione's wild mane of bushy brown hair, and then turning Weasley red, Malfoy blonde, before finally settling back to black.

"So it's not something that just anyone can learn?"

"No, but there are other spells, and even potions you can brew that will help change your appearance, but no, Metamorphing is a blood trait, passed down through families. My cousin Tonks she's a Seventh Year 'Puff actually, is a Metamorphmagus too, and Harry is to some extent."

She looked back over to where Harry was just coming back down the stairs. Harry had caught the tail end of the conversation, and quickly grew his messy black hair down to his hips, before rapidly shortening it to very close cropped, before settling back on his natural length.

"I can only change the length of my hair, not the colour; neither can I change my appearance, not like Kes and Tonks can."

"I thought that you said it was a Black trait, Kestrel."

"It is."

"But, Harry's a Potter, how is that…"

"Oh, Harry and I are related…his dad's mum was a Black. We're second cousins I think, right Harry?"

"Something like that, yes. Most of the pureblood families are inter-related. But enough talk about that, lets get down to dinner, I'm starving!"

"Come and join us Hermione."

The Muggle-born witch looked surprised for a moment, being invited along by people who were already such great friend's with one another. She hurriedly shook off her shock and nodded. "Okay! Just let me run my bag back up to my room." Once she returned they headed down to enjoy a quiet supper with the rest of the school.


	5. Chapter 5

The first Saturday at Hogwarts, dawned bright and cheery. A clear blue sky and hardly any clouds greeted the students, and the sunlight streaming in through many a window caused several groans of annoyance. Harry glared out from inside the curtains of his four-poster bed, and dearly wished that he new a spell to turn back the clock for one more hour.

Just as he was about to bury his head underneath his pillow, he remembered what his dad had wrote in the letter he had sent back, specifically the part where he, Remus, and Sirius were going to help them out in their little joke on Fred and George. He flung the covers off himself and threw one of his pillows at Neville's bed.

"Nev get up! What time is it?"

"Wha-Harry, what are you doing?" Yawned Neville as he stuck his head, brown hair mussed from sleep stuck up in every direction.

"What time is it, have we missed the post?"

"Post why would that – " Neville sat up straight as a look of dawning realization spread across his face. "The prank!"

"Exactly!"

Neville dove for his trunk and pulled out the watch he had shoved into his pocket of his robes. "We haven't missed it. If we hurry we can make it down to breakfast and not look too suspicious."

"Excellent. Get dressed, I'll go get the girls and we'll meet you down in the Common Room." Harry said as he shoved his feet into his trainers and hit the door to the stairs at a fast jog.

Harry leaped down the last few steps then turned to head up the stairs to the girl's dorm rooms. Before his foot had even touched the stairs, a hand wrapped around his arm and tugged him back.

"Hey, gerrof!" He spun around only to come face to face with the oldest Weasley at Hogwarts.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Potter?"

"I was just going to run up and go wake Kestrel and Ginny for breakfast." Harry tugged his arm out of Percy's grip and crossed them over his chest, staring up at the taller boy.

"Boys are not allowed in the girls' dorm rooms. There is a charm that prevents you from entering anyways." The Prefect stated pompously.

"Well is there a way that you can get a message up to them, please?"

Percy looked at him for several moments, before sighing and looking around the Common Room. Sitting in one of the armchairs near the fireplace reading was a Fifth Year girl, doing her homework. "Cassandra?"

"Hm, yes Percy?"

"Would you mind running up to the First Year girls' dorms and waking up my sister Ginny, as well as Kestrel Black for breakfast please?"

"Sure thing Percy." She tucked her quill into her book and quickly raced up the stairs. She was jogging back down two minutes later and ruffled Harry's already messy hair as she walked by. "They said not to wait up and that'll meet you and Neville in the Great Hall."

"Awesome. Thank you, and you too Percy."

"You're welcome Harry."

Neville decided to join them at that point and looked around for the girls. "Where are they?"

"They're going to meet us down there, come on. If we hurry we can get our usual seats."

Ten minutes later Kestrel and Ginny came jogging into the hall, dropping onto the bench opposite of where Harry and Neville were sitting. "Sorry, I couldn't find my wand. It had fallen behind my night table. I think I might ask dad for a holster for Christmas." Kestrel explained as she pulled several pancakes onto her plate.

"Have we missed it?" Ginny asked eagerly also piling several different breakfast items onto her plate.

Harry shook his head. "No, but the post should be coming any minute now."

They tried not to look to eager, or glance over in the direction of the twins too often, passing the time by discussing all that they wanted to get accomplished this weekend.

Kestrel swallowed her bit of pancake, "I think we should finish the rest of our homework for the week, try and get that done by lunch. Then after we split up, two of us go to the library and see what we can dig up on Hogwarts sorting ceremonies, and the other two go get started on a detailed map of the castle. Starting with the grounds, and then working our way into the castle and so on."

Harry and Neville nodded their agreement. "Right that sounds fine," Harry started. "So who wants to do what?"

Before any of them could answer the Great Hall was filled with the sound of flapping wings. The four glanced up and saw Barnabas winging his way towards them, and a tawny and white owl that Kestrel recognized as Remus' Barn Owl, Amber, heading towards Fred and George.

Kestrel quickly moved her plate as Barnabas made a dive for it, aiming for her pancakes. Neville quickly distracted it with a piece of sausage and relieved the cheeky bird of its package, containing the list of books that they would require to help them make their map.

History repeated itself at the older twins' end of the table, as they were surrounded by smoke and the sound of Christmas crackers. Once the smoke cleared the twins were revealed to have had all their freckles turn blue and the words, 'Wannabe Tricksters' emblazoned on their foreheads in Slytherin green.

The Hall erupted into laughter, which the twins joined in on heartily. After getting a good look at their appearances they turned back and pulled out the letter that had been stuffed into the envelope with the prank. As they read, huge grins bloomed on their faces.

Harry and his friends could only imagine what it was that they were reading; knowing their parents and uncles as they did it was something good. Kestrel had hidden her face in her mug of hot chocolate snickering every now and then as she read over the list that Remus had sent them.

Kestrel quickly stuffed the book list into her pocket as Fred and George started to approach them. Harry looked up, eyebrow raised in question. "Can we help you gentlemen with something?"

Fred scratched at one of the blue dots on the side of his nose. "Well I – that is"

"We," George picked up for his brother. "We want to apologize."

"Yes that. We had originally thought that you were having us on."

"Correct Fred. And in our assumption we almost missed out on an opportunity"

"To correspond with our inspirations for aspiring to Pranking greatness."

"So, we're sorry."

Neville, Harry, and Kestrel looked back and forth between the twins, before turning to look at one another, a silent conversation passing between the three of them.

As one they nodded and turned again to the twins, "You're forgiven."

"Excellent!"

"So," Neville asked, taking a slow sip of his tea. "If we may be as bold as to ask what the contents of your letter was?"

George grinned and handed the note over to the closer of the four first years, which happened to be Kestrel. She glanced over the note, recognizing her father's writing immediately. Her grinned turned just a tad feral as she read over the words:

'Your move. boys.

MPP.'

Kes handed the not across the table to Harry and Neville, who got equally wild grins on their faces. "Well we all wish you both the best of luck."

"You're definitely going to need it."

The twins nodded their thanks and headed out of the Great Hall, heading off to the tower to begin plotting their retaliatory strike.

"Well that was slightly unexpected, but it should be very entertaining."

Harry nodded as he finished the off the last of his sausage and eggs. "Yes, though you do realize that they'll probably get us to help them out every now and then?"

"Most likely, but that's what makes it fun." Kestrel grinned as she finished her hot chocolate in one final gulp.

Once everyone was done Harry picked up the conversation that they had been having before the post arrived. "Okay so who wants to do what after we're all caught up on our work? Two to the library and two to explore the outside the school to lay the groundwork for our map."

Kestrel volunteered to head to the library as did Neville. "Alright then Ginny, looks like you're with me, if that's okay with you."

"Sounds fine, Harry." She agreed easily picking up a few bits of fruit and sticking them into the pockets of her jacket as they all stood from the table to leave.

11 o'clock found Neville and Kestrel buried behind a fortress of books on various aspects of the history of Hogwarts. _Sorting Ceremonies Throughout the Centuries_, _Hogwarts Castle: Sentient or a Pile of Rock_, as well as a one of the older copy's of _Hogwarts: A History_, from the mid 12th century, were among the many titles that they had grabbed. Neville currently had _The Sorting Hat: Essays and Speculation Behind the Magic of Godric's Creation_ open and was going slightly cross-eyed at some the words being used, as well as the kind of magic that goes into creating a talking, semi-sentient hat.

At the same time Kestrel was reading through the old _Hogwarts: A History_ book, looking for any reference at all as to why as possibly semi-sentient castle would interfere with something as trivial as the Sorting ceremony. After several more minutes of reading quietly Kestrel slammed the book shut and let her head fall onto the table. "This is hopeless. There is nothing in any of these books that even remotely answers our questions, or even comes close to touching on them." She groaned aloud in frustration, only to be shushed by the Librarian, Ms. Pince. Once the elderly witch was out of sight she stuck her tongue at her.

"Well maybe we're asking the wrong question then?" Neville also closed his book, though with considerable less force than Kestrel had closed hers.

"Well what question should we be asking then? I mean all we have is the fact that the Hat argued with the Castle about where to place us. Even Ginny."

"What?"

"Oh right, I forgot that we never got around to telling you and Harry. I was talking to Ginny the night after we talked about how weird the sorting was. She told me that the reason the Hat was only on her head for such a short period of time was that it was already arguing with the Castle by the time she had put it on her head."

"What was it saying?"

"Umm…something along the lines of, 'Why are you so interested in them, there's nothing special – Oh I suppose you want this one with the other three as well then? Fine, Gryffindor!' The hat didn't even really look in her head, not like it tried to with us."

"That's…odd." Neville closed his eyes, held titled slightly to the side as he thought. "What if…and I'm just throwing this out there. What if it's not the Castle that's responsible for interfering with our Sorting, but something greater than the Castle?"

"Like what though. The only thing that comes to my mind is the Founder's, as they're the ones responsible for creating both the Hat and Hogwarts. They've been dead for over a thousand years though." Kestrel started to trail off before a look of illumination came over her face and she pulled out her own copy of _Hogwarts: A History_, flipping to the section on the Ghosts of Hogwarts.

"What are you looking for Kes?" Neville asked as he got up and walked over to her side of the table, peering over her shoulder.

"The name of the oldest ghosts at Hogwarts. They might be able to answer some of our questions." She read rapidly, finger skimming down the page quickly, hardly stopping for more than a moment. A minute later she was biting back her shout of triumph. "Got it, the oldest ghosts at Hogwarts are the Grey Lady, the Ravenclaw House Ghost and…oh dear."

"What, who's the other one?"

"The Bloody Baron, the House Ghost for Slytherin."

Ginny and Harry met the other two back in the castle at 5 o'clock and joined them at their usual spots at the Gryffindor table.

"So we got most of the grounds mapped out, though we kind of cheated." Ginny admitted with an impish grin.

"How exactly do you cheat in mapping a Castle's grounds?" Neville asked in confusion.

"Easy," replied Harry. "You make friends with the grounds keeper and he gives you a copy of his map of the grounds, which include paths through the Forbidden Forest." Harry's grin was smug and it had every right to be, the original Marauders never managed to map any of the forest.

"That's great! You guys sound like you had better luck than we did." Kestrel said, annoyed, though mostly with herself and the lack of information available in the library.

"Oh? Couldn't find anything in the books in the library?"

"Not a bloody thing. Though Neville thinks, and I agree with him, that we may have been asking the wrong questions."

Neville and Kestrel went on to explain their new theory behind the oddness of the Sorting Hat and the Castle.

Ginny nodded slowly, taking a bite of her chicken. "That does make some amount of sense. But how are you going to get the Bloody Baron or the Grey Lady to talk to you?"

"We haven't figured that bit out yet. Though I suppose…" Kestrel trailed off as she got a bit of a determined look on her face.

Harry sussed out her plan quicker than Neville did. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Kes."

"Why not?"

"Well…a pureblood you may be and a Black, but you're from the non-purist side of the Black family, and well…most of the kids over there probably know exactly who Sirius is."

"I'm not going to know unless I try, besides, I'm not going to talk to the Slytherins, I'm going to go and talk to the Bloody Baron." She shoved away from the table and stood up, making her way across the Great Hall, passed the Ravenclaw table and over to the Slytherin table, carefully not making eye contact with any of them as she sought out the Baron.

She found him, floating in a seat in between some rather pale looking third and fourth year students. She could feel the eyes of quite a few students on her, as well as a few of the staff members. She ignored them all and headed straight for one of the most frightening ghosts of Hogwarts.

She paused, next to the third years and opened her mouth to speak. Before she could utter a single word one of the third years turned to her and rudely asked, "What do you want, Black?"

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye before turning back to face the ghost. "I have a question for the Baron."

The ghost regarded her with an eerily calm, detached stare that unnerved her greatly. She could feel her hair sliding from black to white and forcibly restrained it, keeping it black. "It is a rare occurrence that a student from another house, or even my own, seeks my counsel, especially one so young. Ask your question child."

"The question is somewhat…private in nature; I was hoping to ask to speak to you after Supper had ended, Lord Baron, if it is not too inconvenient?"

The Baron stared at her a few moments longer, making the young girl squirm a bit, before nodding. "That is suitable. I will come find you after this meal has ended. Go back to your table now, girl."

"Yessir. And thank you." She nodded her thanks and hurried back to the Gryffindor table, tossing Blaise a quick smile as she passed him. She sat down hastily and took a few calming breaths as Neville filled her goblet with pumpkin juice. "Thanks Nev. That was nerve racking!"

"What'd he say?" Harry and Ginny asked curiously.

"He's going to come and find me after supper, so we need to make sure that we're alone, since I told him it was a private matter."

"If you told him that it was private, maybe you should meet him on your own?" Harry said, looking slightly nervous.

"No offence to the Baron, but I am not meeting him in some abandoned classroom by myself Potter."

"Harry has a point though, Kes," Ginny said. "You did say it was private."

Kestrel knew that her friends weren't trying to skip out on this, they were just pointing out how unwise it was to upset a ghost. Especially when the ghost you maybe offending was the only ghost in the Castle capable of controlling Peeves the Poltergeist.

"We were both working on this so he should be okay with me being there if we explain it right." Neville said, coming to her rescue.

Kestrel quickly hugged him around the shoulders, "Thanks you Neville. At least I can always count on one of my brothers." She stuck her tongue out at Harry, who stuck his out back in response.

The rest of supper passed along normally after that and the four friends laughed and shared a few more stories of their childhoods to pass the time.

Once the Hall decided to start emptying the four Gryffindor first years decided to head back to the tower themselves. Neville and Kestrel decided to head up to the Owlery, Neville had written a letter to his Gran, asking her to send him some of the books he had left at her home over the summer, which he had not thought he would need.

They entered the Owlery, and were just about to call down Barnabas, when the Bloody Baron floated up through the floor, startling both first years.

"Greetings, young one."

After slowing her racing heart she greeted the Slytherin ghost. "Hello Lord Baron. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me, well us I guess. This is Neville Longbottom, a friend of mine who is helping me with the problem I wanted to ask you about."

"Very well then, proceed."

They quickly explained what they had been researching and why and their new theory that had prompted them to seek out the Castle's oldest ghosts.

"So we were wondering Lord Baron, if you have ever heard of something like this happening at Hogwarts before, the Castle interfering with the Sorting Hat's decision. Or maybe heard of a force of magic that might prompt the Castle to do so?"

Neville called down Barnabas and gave him the letter to his Gran while the Baron thought about what they had told him. At least they assumed he was thinking the ghost's expression never really changed much.

"I have not heard of such a thing happening before, not within Hogwarts since my death, or before. However the only force that I believe would have the knowledge to alter something as trivial as a school sorting, especially with the specific goal, that I can see, of bringing you two and your two other friends together, would be the spirits of the Founders themselves."

Neville and Kestrel could only stare at the Baron in confusion. "But why," Neville said. "Why would the Founders care where we went one way or the other?"

"They're spirits are still at Hogwarts?" Kestrel asked, surprise clear in her voice.

"If one knows where to look for them, then yes they are still at Hogwarts. As well as for those they feel are worthy to reveal themselves to. That is all I can help you with in regards to this matter. I wish you luck in your quest, young ones." With that he floated back down through the floor leaving Neville and Kestrel in stunned silence.

After several moments of silence Kestrel snorted in disgust and through up her hands, "Bugger this. I'm too tired for this crap. Let's just get back to the Tower, besides I've just had an idea that can serve to cheer me up spectacularly."

Ron Weasley, along with Fred and George, entered the Common Room to find Harry, Ginny, Neville, and Kestrel at one of the tables, with a piece of paper, and a stacks of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts. They walked over to see what they were up to. Ron did not really know how to feel about his twin sister hanging out so much with the three other Gryffindors. Not that he was begrudging his twin her new friends; he himself had made good friends with Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas. It was just that for as long as he could remember it had been he and Ginny, as there hadn't been many other Wizarding children close to where they lived.

"What are you four up to know?" Ron asked as he and the twins reached the table.

"It's a betting pool." Harry said as Kestrel wrote down the bet that a sixth year had just placed, taking the 4 galleons she was betting.

"A pool for what?" chorused the twins.

"A pool trying to guess the date on which Professor Severus Snape will ever take a bath." Kestrel stated simply, writing down the next bet. The three youngest male Weasley's stared for a few moments before turning to look at Ginny, to see if they were being serious. The smirk on Ginny's smirk confirmed that they were serious and they burst into laughter, immediately getting in line to place their own bets.

It was five minutes later that the portrait hole swung open and a flash of red hair appeared. Harry hastily swept the gold they had collected into his bag as Kestrel stuffed the papers inside her Charms text book. The students that had been crowding around the table quickly dispersed, dashing back to chairs or to other tables, making it look like nothing had been happening at all, so as not to arouse the Prefects suspicions.

Percy glanced around to see everyone either working on homework assignments or just lounging around and enjoying their free time. Once he was satisfied that nothing was amiss he headed up to his dorm to go and get his own homework. It was his OWL year after all and he did not want to fall behind in his studies.

As soon as Percy disappeared up the stairs everyone in the Common Room breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Kestrel pulled out her copy of _Hogwarts: A History_ and started to make a list of places of where they might find the spirits of the Founders at Hogwarts. A Seventh year walked by their table, heading back up to her dorm, a copy of the days _Daily Prophet_ tucked under her arm. A flash of a picture and the tail end of a title caught Harry's attention, "Hey Melinda, are you done with the _Prophet_?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, here you go Harry."

"Thanks!" He quickly opened it to the front page and scanned the article that had intrigued him. "Hey guys, listen to this. Break in at Gringotts Bank. It's believed to be the work of unknown dark wizards or witches. Gringotts goblins while acknowledging the breach insist that nothing was taken "The vault in question, number 713, had been empted that same day. But we're not telling you what was in there!" said a Gringotts media goblin this afternoon. Gringotts now needs to readdress their security system. Goblin's security specialists and Curse-Breakers are conducting tests, while also looking for a better breed of security Dragon. They are also going as far as examining Muggle security systems. Gringotts needs to get another security system in place before any more breaches in security occur. Wizards all over the country are in a panic wondering if their gold and valuables are safe."

"Wow. That takes someone who is either very skilled, or completely insane." Kestrel whistled, not quite sure whether to be impressed or frightened. "Who would want to break into Gringotts? I mean if you're caught, just imagine what the goblins would do to you! Not to mention the different curses and wards that they have on the vaults, or, you know, the bloody Dragons!"

"I wonder what they were trying to take." Neville mused aloud as he re-read the article over Harry's shoulder.

"Imagine if you could pull it off though. Not saying I want to, don't look at me like that Black. I'm just saying if you could, imagine all the neat stuff you could find, especially in some of the older vaults?"

"Okay, yes, I agree. If you could pull it off it would be amazing." Kestrel conceded the point after a few moments of thought. "But you'd still have to have some sort of death wish."


	6. Chapter 6

The next week flew by for the four friends as they settled into a routine of going to class, doing homework, and attempting to work out why the Founders may have interfered with their sorting. As per his father's request Harry kept track of when and how much his scar hurt throughout the week. It did not happen every DADA class, and it occurred a few times in the Great Hall, and once in the Library. For all of them, Professor Quirrel was around, except for the one in the Library, at least not that they had noticed.

On Tuesday after classes had ended for the day, there was a notice up in the Common Room, letting First Years know that flying lessons would begin on Thursday September 12th, and they would be having them with the Slytherins.

"Excellent." Harry grinned. If there was one thing Harry loved to do, it was fly.

Thursday morning dawned bright and clear, nary a cloud in the sky, a perfect day to learn to fly. The last of the students had just finished arriving and breakfast had been served when the post owls arrived. As he had every morning since he sent his letter, Neville looked up into the flock of owls, hoping to see Barnabas in the flock. He saw an Eagle Owl circle the Great Hall once before winging over to the Slytherin table and landing on Malfoy's shoulder. He cast another look through the flock and finally saw his family's owl carrying a rather small looking package, considering what he had asked for. The black owl landed in Kestrel's plate, she hadn't been awake enough to remember to move.

"Ruddy bird!" she yelled, much to the amusement of her class mates.

Neville quickly removed the small package from the owl, scolding it gently. "How many times must we ask you to stop tormenting Kestrel so, Barnabas?" Whether or not owls were able to look smug or amused, Barnabas was managing both spectacularly. Barnabas took the piece of bacon that was offered to him nipping at Neville's fingers affectionately before flying off toward the Owlery.

Neville waved over one of the 6th Year Gryffindor Prefects asking him if he would mind unshrinking his package for him.

"Sure thing, Neville. The spell is _Finite_, so you can do it yourself next time." He said with a grin as he tapped the carefully wrapped package, and it expanded to reveal several books, and a small wrapped box.

"Cool. Thanks Malcolm." The older boy waved, heading off to get his books for his first class.

Neville quickly glanced over the stack books, while Kestrel reached for the smaller package that was sitting next to the stack, knowing Neville wouldn't care if she opened it. She unwrapped then opened the box, upending it, and dumped out what was inside. A small glass ball filled with pale gray smoke fell into her hand and she stared at it curiously.

"Say, Nev. Why would Gran send you a Rememberall?"

"She sent me a what?" He looked over at Kestrel and she held up the glass ball for his inspection. He reached over to take it only to have it snatched out of his hand before he had barely touched it.

"What's this Longbottom?"

"It's a gift from my Gran, Malfoy, give it back."

"You do know that these things went out of style in my parent's time at school?"

"My Gran is considerably older than your parents Malfoy, and probably doesn't realize that they are no longer "in fashion", as it were." Neville rolled his eyes as the Malfoy heir tried to goad him into a reaction. "Now may I please have it back."

"Or what you'll do what, Longbottom?"

Kestrel's eyes flashed wickedly as she turned slightly looking over Malfoy's shoulder, and with a bright smile she said, "Oh, good morning, Professor McGonagall."

Draco jumped, they Rememberall leaping from his hands as he spun around only to find the previously mentioned Professor not there. Neville had already reached out and snatched the ball from the air, tucking into his robes and out of sight. He turned back around to glare at the grinning Gryffindors. "I'll get you for that."

Kestrel only grinned wider, "Look forward to it, Cousin. Now why don't you run along back to your little table of snakes, yeah?"

The blonde Slytherin glared once more before turning and walking back to the Slytherin table, sitting back down with his friends.

"We really probably shouldn't goad him like that."

"Your probably right, Neville, we shouldn't. You got to admit though, it is entertaining."

Neville's only response was to grin. Oh the joys of being brought up a Marauder.

After lunch the first year Gryffindors all filed out towards the Quidditch Pitch where the Slytherins were already gathered. There were 20 brooms all laid out in two rows of ten. They all lined up, Slytherin to one side and Gryffindor on the other, just as the flying Instructor, Madame Hooch, walked out onto the pitch.

"Some of you may have done this before at your own homes, but for the moment that does not matter. You will all listen to my instruction and follow my rules for flying while on the pitch, understood?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good." Madam Hooch then gave a quick explanation behind the mechanics of flying and how to mount a broom.

"Right, I want you to reach your wand out over your broom, and in a firm voice say, 'up'!"

Twenty voices rang out across the grounds, as the first years tried to get their brooms to rise at their command. The brooms of Neville, Harry, Ginny, Draco, Kestrel, and Ron all leaped up on command, most others got it on their second or third tries. Hermione however was still struggling and was becoming increasingly frustrated.

Ginny was closest to her and halted her attempts with a hand on her shoulder. "Whoa there, Hermione, the broom isn't going to do what you want if you're afraid of it."

"I'm not afraid. Why would I be afraid of a silly old broom anyway?"

"Because it's not something that you can learn to do out of a book?" Kestrel guessed leaning around Ginny to smile at the other girl.

"Well if you two are so smart, what should I do then?" Ginny quickly gave Hermione the same advice that Charlie had given her when she was younger and wanting to learn to fly. Hermione nodded with a bit more determination and held her hand over her broom. She took a deep breath and in a firm and commanding tone said, "Up!" The broom flew into her hand with a solid smack.

She looked over and grinned at Ginny, who smiled back. "I did it!"

"I knew you could do it."

"Way to go Hermione."

Once everyone had been able to call the brooms to their hand, Madam Hooch had everyone mount up.

"To take off, I want to you push off from the ground, not too hard or you'll shoot right up. Just give a little push, hover for a few moments, then lean forward slightly to return to the ground."

With a steady stream of encouragement Hermione was able to hover for several seconds before returning to the ground. Kestrel's broom however appeared to have malfunctioned and shot upwards several dozen feet before throwing her into a tailspin, heading straight for one of the Quidditch stands.

"Kestrel!" Was yelled by not only Neville and Harry, but Blaise as well, who rushed over to stand with them. Harry and Neville watched as their sister spiralled towards serious injury, not being able to do anything. It all happened so quick that no one, not even their instructor, was able to react. Kestrel fought the broom the whole way, and managed to pull the broom out of the spin enough to slow down its rotation. As soon as she was above the seats she let go of the broom and crashed into the wooden platforms with a scream.

Ignoring Madame Hooch's order to stay where they were Harry, Neville and Blaise raced over to where she had crashed landed. Before his broom had even come to a complete stop Harry had hopped off and was removing pieces of the bleachers from his sister's unconscious form. She had several cuts and scrapes, as well as a large bump on her head, but otherwise appeared unhurt.

Madam Hooch arrived at the scene just as Blaise and Neville removed the last piece of wood. She pulled out her wand and with a flick Kestrel floated up into the air and hovered there for a moment. "I want you all to stay here with your feet firmly on the ground. Anyone found to have broken this rule will be out of here faster than you can say 'Quidditch'."

With that she flew off towards the hospital wing, Kestrel floating along behind her.

Harry, Blaise, and Neville returned to where the remainder of the class was, landing back next to their fellow Gryffindors, Harry carrying the old broom that Kestrel had been using. Neville turned to see Ginny comforting Hermione, telling her that stuff like that normally didn't happen and not to let that cloud her experience too much.

"Thanks for lending a hand Blaise."

"Any time Nev. I know you and Harry will probably get to visit her later, let me know how she's doing, yeah? I should get back to my house." They both looked over to where several Slytherin's were giving them rather dark looks.

"Sure thing. You'll know as soon as we know. Take care Blaise."

As Neville turned back to look towards the castle, in the direction that Kestrel had been taken, he noticed something glinting in Draco's hand. He squinted a bit against the bright afternoon light trying to see what it was. His eyes widened upon seeing his Rememberall in the Slytherins hand. He patted his robe's inner pocket, indeed finding it empty. He walked over to Malfoy and held out his hand, "Give it back Malfoy."

"Give what back?" He asked slyly as he let the sleeve of his robe drop over his hand, hiding the tennis ball sized object from sight.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, you git. My Rememberall, give it back."

"Oh you mean this?" He held it up again, twisting it this way and that, so that it glinted in the sun.

"You're not clever, you know." Harry said as he came up to stand next to his brother.

Draco ignored Harry and continued to look at Neville. "Maybe if your little _girlfriend_ had been onto holding this, she'd have remembered how to fly."

Harry went to take a step towards Malfoy, whether to hit him or hex him he wasn't sure, but he was stopped regardless by Neville and Ginny each grabbing one of his arms. "Oh come on, he's totally asking for it."

"Yes, he is, and I'm going to give it to him." Neville said a steely edge to his voice. He turned to look back at Malfoy. "Give me back the Rememberall now, or I'll make the rest of your first year a living nightmare."

Draco scoffed, looking a bit nervous, and mounted his broom. "Well if you want it Longbottom, then you're just going to have to come and get it." With that he kicked off from the ground hard and flew up in to the air, smirking down at his fellow First Years haughtily. Several of the Gryffindor First Years tried to talk Neville out of it, reminding him of Hooch's warning. Neville glanced at Harry, his opinion the only one he wanted at the moment.

Harry smirked and nudged the twigs of Neville's school broom. "Make it fast Nev, before Hooch gets back."

"That shouldn't be a problem, I'm aiming for quick and humiliating." Neville mounted his own broom, and ignoring the continued warnings of his year mates kicked off to join Malfoy in the air. "Give it here, Malfoy."

Draco was surprised to see that Neville had followed him up here and swallowed a little nervously.

"What's the matter, Draco? Scared now that you don't have your _friends_ up here with you?"

Draco glanced down at the gathered Slytherins and Gryffindors below them ant looked back at Neville. "If you haven't noticed, Longbottom, all your friends are on the ground as well."

"Yeah, but there's one key difference between me and you, Draco."

"What's that?"

"I'm not afraid of you, or of being without someone at my back. Now, last chance, give it back."

"Come and get it." Draco spun his borrowed broom around and sped off in the opposite direction, not one to take a change lying down.

Neville's dark eyes narrowed, and leaning over the handle of his own broom, shot off after the Malfoy heir.

The two boys weaved and dove and twisted through the air in an impressive display of flying skill. Neville, in an effort to cut off Draco and end their flight before their instructor arrived, swung wide around the blonde Slytherin and then cut toward Draco. Draco swung his broom sideways and screeched to a halt.

Neville shoved a few strands of his dark blonde hair out of his eyes. "Look, Malfoy, while I really don't care whether or not you get expelled, I'd rather not. So just give me back the bloody Rememberall, and we'll call it even."

Draco glanced from Neville towards the castle, making sure a teacher was still nowhere in sight. Seeing he still had time to get back to the ground he took the Rememberall out from inside his robes and tossed it once in the air, before smirking at Neville. "Okay, then, here you go Longbottom, fetch!" He threw the fragile glass ball with all his might, towards the castle. Neville without even pausing to think lay flat out on his broom handle and shot forward after the ball, nearly knocking Draco out of the air as he shot passed.

The ball was heading for the ground faster than Neville thought it could fall, and he wasn't sure he would be able to catch it on the old broom. Seeing that he wasn't going to make it on his current course he plunged into a steep dive, hoping to intercept the ball closer to the ground.

Just as the ball would have hit the stone walk, leading back up towards the castle, Neville's fingers closed around the ball and he braked hard, tumbling off his broom and landing in the grass. He sat up carefully, but found no injuries. He was soon joined by his cheering housemates. Their celebration was short lived however when a stern voice cut across the Pitch.

"NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM!"

Neville froze in place as his heart dropped to somewhere around his knees, which explained why the all of a sudden felt like jelly. Professor McGonagall was running towards them, green tartan robes billowing out behind her. He got to his feel, his whole body shaking, _Gran is going to kill me_.

"_Never_ – in all my time at Hogwarts –" Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her eyes flashed furiously from behind her glasses, "– how _dare_ you – might have broken your neck –"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor –"

"Be quiet, Miss Granger –"

"But, Professor, Malfoy –"

"That's _enough_, Mr Potter. Longbottom, follow me. Now."


	7. Chapter 7

**Authors Notes:** I suppose I should do at least one of these, lol. First of all, thank you for all the reviews! They are all appreciated and I try to reply to all the ones that ask me questions. I also wanted to let you all now that I went back and fixed a few spelling and grammatical errors, the most glaring being the misspelling of the last name Weasley. More than slightly embarrassed about that one.

I also went back and added a few bits to certain chapters, namely the Sorting, Chapter 2. It was pointed out that I later mention that the Hat did something strange with Ginny, but no previous mention of it, so that's fixed.

Well that's all I have to say for now, on with the story and please, do leave a review! Thanks a bunch and enjoy!

Harry looked up from his place next to a still unconscious Kestrel's hospital bed as the Hospital Wing door creaked open. Neville was walking in, finger to his lips, as he approached the bed.

"How is she?" He asked pulling up another chair and sitting on her other side.

"The Medi-Witch, Madame Pomfrey, says that she's fine. She's just keeping her over night for observation. The cuts and things she fixed up right away, it's just the head she's worried about now. She got a pretty bad concussion in the crash."

"So she'll be out tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

They sat in silence for a few moments longer before Harry finally couldn't take it anymore. "So what did McGonagall say?"

"Well she's writing home, telling Dad about what happened, and I won't be allowed back into the flying lessons, but I'm not to be expelled or anything."

Harry slumped over in relief. "Glad to hear it mate. Why do I get the feeling that you're not telling me everything, though?'

"Because you've known me since we were in nappies?" They both shared a laugh that they quickly hushed when Kestrel stirred fitfully. "I was going to wait and tell you both, as well as Ginny, but since it looks like Kes won't be out for awhile I'll just tell you now. You can't tell anyone though. It's supposed to be a secret…at least for the next few days."

"No one will hear it from me, promise. So what is it?"

"You are looking at Gryffindor House's new Seeker."

"Really?" Neville just nodded, a bit of a shy grin on his face. "That's bloody brilliant Nev! Oh, I cannot wait to see the look on Malfoy's face when he finds out you're not being expelled."

With that the topic turned to Quidditch and they talked quietly about that for awhile, only to be interrupted when the door swung open again, only this time it was Sirius Black that strode in.

"Uncle Sirius!"

"Hello boys." He ruffled their hair in greeting before pulling out his wand and conjuring up a chair for him to sit in. Sirius was a tall, well-built, darkly handsome man with fair skin, long, black hair that he kept pulled back from his face, and the same striking gray eyes that Kestrel had inherited. He usually wore simple, but elegant robes in either black, or blue, today though he was in the red robes of an Auror, having come to Hogwarts from working at the Ministry. On his right hand was the Black Family ring, signifying him as the Head of the Black Family.

"Kes is going to be upset when she hears she missed your visit." Neville said smiling up at his uncle.

"She may not, cub. I talked to Poppy and she should wake up around dinner time. She just gave her a small dose, since she wanted Kestrel to rest. Also, Neville, I hear congratulations are in order? Youngest Seeker in a century, that's pretty impressive. You're not even out of your second week of school yet, to boot."

"How'd you know?"

"Your dad was with me when McGonagall fire-called the office about Kestrel. He'll send you your broom with tomorrow's post, along with his congratulations I imagine. He's proud of you for sticking up for Kes, like that. I am too."

"Kestrel's family, she'd do the same for me."

"Yes she would. Although with Kestrel there probably would have been creative spell-work involved, and not, how did McGonagall put it, 'ridiculously dangerous flying. The boy nearly gave me a heart attack.' Yes I believe that was what she said." Sirius grinned down at the now furiously blushing 11 year old.

"You two should probably head down to dinner; let your housemates now that Kes is okay."

Both boys nodded and stood to leave. "Oh, wait a second." Harry dug into his bag which he had brought down with him to do some reading while sitting with Kestrel. He pulled out the list that he had made about when and how his scar had been hurting that week. "Can you give this to dad for me, Sirius? It's that list he asked me to make for him."

"Sure thing, Prongslet, will do. Have a good night and try and not to get into too much trouble."

"No promises, Uncle Sirius." Both boys laughed as they exited the Hospital Wing, waving over their shoulders.

Blaise hopped up from his seat at the Slytherin table, where he was talking to Theodore Knott, he hurried over to Harry and Neville, stopping them as they entered the Great Hall. "Harry, Nev, how's Kestrel? Is she alright?"

Harry patted Blaise on the shoulder grinning. "She's going to be fine, Blaise, Madame Pomfrey just wanted to keep her in the Hospital Wing overnight for observation. She hit her head pretty hard and had a concussion, but otherwise she was unharmed."

Blaise heaved a huge sigh of relief and gave the two boys a grateful grin. "That's good. Thanks for letting me know, I might go visit her before curfew if she's up."

"She should be," said Neville. "Uncle Sirius is up there with her now."

"Oh good, I had a question I wanted to ask him anyway. Night, mates."

"Night Blaise." They waved as the Slytherin boy walked out of the Hall towards the staircases

Ginny waved to the two boys after Blaise left them and they walked over to join her, dodging around a few other students. They sat down gratefully and smiled as Ginny started piling their plates with food. "How's Kestrel, is she all right? What did McGonagall say Neville? Are you being expelled? You really shouldn't be, it was all that git, Malfoy's fault anyway –"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down Weasley, one question at a time. We're only human."

She huffed and leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms, a clear 'I'm waiting' expression on her face.

"Kestrel's fine, she's spending the night in the hospital wing, because of a concussion, but she'll be back with us by tomorrow morning."

"I'm not being expelled, but I can't discuss what McGonagall said here, too many people. I'll tell you later tonight in the Common Room."

They're interrupted by Fred and George dropping down onto the bench on either side of Ginny. Fred leaned in keeping his voice low as George kept lookout. "Congrats, Neville. Wood's just told us. George and I are on the team too. Beaters." He glanced up suddenly when George tapped his shoulder. Fred sat up and nicked some fruit from Ginny's plate as he stood to join his twin, she was too stunned to even try and stop him. "Can't talk more now, Lee reckons he found a new secret passage out of the school."

George nodded, "Bet you it's that one we found behind Gregory the Smarmy in our first week. Well later chaps." The twins waved before walking over and joined their best friend, Lee Jordan, who was waiting for them at the end of the Gryffindor table.

"Speaking of secret passages," Harry said, neatly changing the topic as he piled food onto his on plate. "How are your guys' parts of the map coming? I've got most of the second floor mapped out, and some of the third. That bit may have to wait, until the right hand side of the third floor corridor opens up again. I don't know when that might be though."

"Ours our coming along well. The dungeons are done and most of the first floor. On a side note, I think I may have found the entrance to the Hufflepuff den."

"Wicked." Ginny and Harry said together.

Any more discussion about their map was halted by the arrival of a smug looking Draco, accompanied by his usual hulking shadows, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Having a last meal, Longbottom. When are they sending you home? Your Father and Gran must be terribly disappointed in you."

Neville glared up at the Malfoy heir, twisting a bit in his seat to face the other boy. "You're much braver down on the ground with your…little friends, than you were up in the air Malfoy."

"I can take you on my own just fine, Longbottom."

Harry immediately guessed where Malfoy was probably hoping to go with this, so he decided to beat him to the punch. "Okay Malfoy. How about tonight? Wizard's Duel, wands only, no contact, and only non-lethal spells."

"That is if you're not scared." Ginny threw in, hiding behind her hands.

Grey eyes flashed in surprise, and Harry bit back a crow of triumph, glad that he had guessed right. "Fine, Crabbe's my second, who's your Longbottom."

"Harry."

"Fine. Midnight sound good? We'll meet in the Trophy room on the second floor. It's always unlocked."

"Deal. See you then Malfoy."

Once Draco was out of ear-shot, sitting back at the Slytherin table, Hermione turned to look at the two scowling boys. "I couldn't help but overhear what you were saying…You're not really going to go are you?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, but it's not what you're thinking. We're not planning on leaving the dorm after curfew."

Neville turned back in his seat and looked at Harry. "Booby trap the room?"

"Booby trap the room." He nodded in agreement, Ginny giggling beside him as Hermione sighed in relief, tuning out the rest of the conversation. "I was waiting for the right opportunity to bring this up, but I stole one of Dad's Marauder Journals, from when they were in school. I think I have the perfect spell/potion combo to use; I just need a little help tweaking it."

As Draco got up to leave the Great Hall, Ginny rose at the same time and stealthily worked her way across the tables. She had to time this perfectly. Just as Draco was about to exit through the large wooden doors out into the Entrance Hall Ginny shoved by him, bumping into his shoulder, her hand grabbing at his shoulder as they both fell.

"Ouch!"

"Oh, jeez. I'm sorry. I didn't mean –" She reached out a hand to help pull the boy to his feet.

He just slapped her hand away, "Don't touch me, Weasley."

"Fine! See if I ever help you again, you foul git!" She huffed and flounced away, red hair swaying behind her, heading up toward the Tower.

Harry and Neville arrived ten minutes after Ginny had reached the Common Room and found her sitting cross-legged in the armchair in front of the fire. Harry practically bounced over to her with Neville behind him, following at a more sedate pace. "Did you get it? Did you get it?"

Ginny's answer was to smile sweetly and hold up a tuft of blonde hair, a few with the roots still attached. "Excellent! Now let's get to some serious pranking."

True to their word to Hermione, they did not sneak out after curfew. The prank only involved a simple potion that could be brewed in an hour. This meant that they made it back to the Common Room well before curfew, with no one the wiser of what they had been up to. No all they had to do was hope that Draco wouldn't be a coward and would turn up where and when he was supposed to. Though as a back up they had snuck down to the dungeons and had sprayed some of the potion onto the doorway that all the Slytherins came up to the Entrance Hall through. That way even if he hadn't gone the spell would still affect him.

Kestrel exited the hospital wing the next morning to find her friends leaning against the opposite wall. "Hey guys!" She was quickly hugged by all three and they headed down to breakfast together.

"So you get out of hospital just in time to go down for Potions. Good morning to you!" Ginny giggled as she patted her now gloomy looking friend on the shoulder.

"Fantastic." Kes muttered sarcastically as they hit the stairs that would bring them from the Hospital Wing down towards the main staircases. "Oh, dad told me about you being made Seeker for Gryffindor, Nev. Congratulations."

"Thanks. Dad should be sending along my broom with this mornings post."

"Meaning that breakfast will be twice as entertaining as it normally is." Harry said with a bounce in his step.

"Why would it be entertaining? What did you guys get up to while I was stuck in the Infirmary?"

They quickly explained their prank to the now happily grinning Black as they stepped on to one of the many moving stair cases. "That's brilliant! Oh I can't wait to see the look on his –"

Kestrel abruptly stopped speaking as the staircase gave a jerk underneath them.

"Bloody hell." Harry muttered as they all clutched to the railing and tried not to fall to the stone steps beneath their feet. "It had to do this now? We're going to miss Malfoy making an idiot of himself…and breakfast!"

The staircase finally came to a stop and the four Gryffindors ran down the stairs and into the corridor, hoping to find a shortcut down to the Great Hall. They found the way they wanted to take blocked by Peeves, who was juggling six large, bronze, candelabra's. Peeves was a semi-corporeal poltergeist that haunted Hogwarts, dressed in a glaringly orange and blue jester type outfit, complete with a blue hat with bells, and a neon orange bow tie.

He cackled madly when he spotted them, "What are four wee ickle firsties doing up so early, no classes yet, no there's not."

"The stairs moved Peeves; we're trying to get down to the Great Hall. Could you move please? You're blocking our way." Ginny tried the polite approach, remembering her mother saying once that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

"Hmm…shouldn't lie to Peevesy. You're up to something rotten and naughty, should tell Filch I should."

"He's not going to move, let's just go down a bit further, and look for another way down." Neville suggested and continued on down the hallway, ignoring Peeves who blew a rather loud raspberry at him.

Apparently, Peeves really didn't take kindly to being ignored and started throwing the candelabra's at them. They broke into a run desperately dodging the flying candlesticks looking for anyway that they might get away from the Poltergeist. Ginny noticed a tapestry that was hanging on the right hand side flutter a bit in an unfelt breeze. Ignoring the fact that there were no windows in the corridor she angled towards the waving tapestry. "Quick this way," Ginny flung the tapestry aside and they all dodged in behind her, Harry narrowly missing be hit by candelabra number three of six.

"Students causing mischief! Students causing trouble!" Peeves cackled, zooming along behind them, his remaining weapons floating along in his wake.

"Bugger off, Peeves!" But bugger off Peeves did not, he continued to chase them on down through to the charms corridor, through a room full of various pieces of armour, passed several classrooms, and an out-of-order toilet. Luckily they were able to get some distance when Peeves stopped to resupply his arsenal with one of the suits of armour.

They ran into a locked door that Kestrel quickly opened with a muttered "Alohomora," and they all tumbled inside, closing the door as quietly as they could behind them. Neville pressed his ear to the door and motioned for the others to be quiet. He could barely hear Peeves calling out wondering where they had gone. He waited listening as the devilish little things voice became fainter and fainter, until it had drifted off altogether.

Neville and Ginny, who had been listening above him, both sighed in relief. Neville could feel an insistent tugging on the sleeve of his robe and turned to look over his shoulder at Harry. Both he and Kestrel were pale white, their faces standing out alarmingly in the dimly lit room.

"What's the ma–" he was cut off when Kestrel slapped a hand over his mouth and pointed with a shaking hand to a very large dark lump in front of them. Neville felt all the blood drain from his face, and was sure he was nearly as white as his friends. Harry took several steps back and started to open the door.

The jiggling of the handle must have been loud enough, or the smell of four students entering its room finally got the attention of whatever it was, and three pairs of golden eyes peered at them from the centre of the room. Ginny had started to tremble, shrinking back against the wall.

"Hurry up, Potter!" Kestrel hissed as quietly as she could, and was barely able to contain a squeak of fright as the beast yawned, gleaming white teeth flashing in the dark. Harry flung the door open and light from the hallway flooded into the room, bringing the creature into view. It was easily the size of a small house, gray furred with three massive heads. The four Gryffindors screamed and ran from the room, slamming the door behind them. The beast leaped for them at the same moment and knocked the door back open. They threw their combined weight against it and slammed it shut, sighing in relief when they heard the lock _snick_ back into place.

They ran out of the corridor and made it back to the main stairwell and did not stop running until they reached the Entrance Hall. Once they reached the apparent safety of the Entrance Hall that Kestrel said, "I guess now we know what they Headmaster meant about suffering a horrible death."

"You're not kidding. Why would he have something like that in a school full of children?"

"Well, the door was locked Harry."

"Not the point, Longbottom! Anyway, we'll finish this discussion later. Right now I am starving." They sat down at Gryffindor table and set about filling their plates. A quick look over at the Slytherin's table confirmed that Malfoy had not yet arrived. "Oh good, we haven't missed it. That should brighten up our near death experience."

They waited for what seemed like eternity for Malfoy to show up and just as they were about to give up hope of seeing the Malfoy heir before Potions class, the blonde boy entered the Great Hall, a sullen look on his face. He sat down at his house table grumpily and refused to look at, or talk to anyone as he filled his plate with fruit and toast.

A few of his fellows tried to get him to join in on their conversations, but he just shook his head forcefully and ignored them all. He was quiet for most of the remainder of the meal until one of the fifth year Slytherin Prefects approached him.

Unfortunately they could not hear what was being said, but judging by the annoyed look on Malfoy's face, the prefect was questioning him on something that he did not wish to discuss. Finally the blonde Slytherin could take no more and shouted at the Prefect to 'leave him be.' At least he tried, instead of words, rainbow coloured foam spewed from his mouth and down the front of his robes. The Great Hall burst into laughter, indeed many of his housemates even joined in. Malfoy only stood with as much dignity as he could muster and walked, very quickly, out of the Hall, presumably back to the dungeons to change.

Kestrel had her head buried in her arms, face down on the table, her shoulders shaking with laughter. "We thought that would brighten up your day." Neville said garbled though it was by his own laughter, next to both of them Harry and Ginny were laughing to hard to even breathe properly.

"You guys are the best friends a girl could ask for."

At that moment the post flew in, but there was no sign of Barnabas in the swarm of owls. "Hm? I wonder where he is? Oh well, Draco's not here to enjoy the result of him trying to get me expelled anyway. Come on, let's get to Potions and get this day over with."

Their second Potions lesson was just as horrid as the first. Since Snape was a member of Staff, he knew all about Neville being appointed Gryffindors newest Seeker, and so focused most of his ire on him. Making Neville so nervous and out of sorts that he botched his Cough Cure Potion and ended up melting his cauldron as well as most of the work bench. Some of it had gotten on his hands and they erupted into blisters so painful that they brought tears to his eyes. He would not, however, give Snape the satisfaction of seeing him cry, though it was a close thing.

"Black, take Longbottom to the Hospital Wing." He snapped as he vanished the potion – with snarled, '_Evanesco_' – off the table and Neville's hands, preventing it from injuring him further.

"Yes, Professor." Kestrel had already bottled her potion and gave it to Ginny. She left her things where they were and led him out of the class room.

"Potter! Is there a reason you let Longbottom add the dried nettle _before_ the potion had simmered for the required 15 minutes? Trying to make yourself look better were you?"

"No Professor! I just hadn't noticed, I was concentrating on my own –"

"Enough! That will be 10 points from Gryffindor."

"Sir, that's not fair. If I had noticed Neville making a mistake I would have –"

"That's another 10 points, Potter. Would you like to try for a further 10 and a detention next?"

"No, sir." Harry said and started to bottle his potion.

"You will receive a zero for today's work, Potter, and your potion will be marked in place of Longbottom's."

Harry just nodded and put Neville's name on the bottle instead of his. He placed it on Snape's desk with those of the other students, then returned to his work station and hastily packed up his things, then helped Ginny with Kestrel and Neville's supplies.

Five minutes later they were striding up out of the dungeons, a thunderous look on Harry's face. "I _hate_ that man." Harry snarled as he and Ginny walked passed the Great Hall and towards the main staircase.

"That was totally unfair of him too. We both know that you would have warned Neville if you had seen him making a mistake." Ginny's brown eyes flashed furiously as they continued on up passed the third floor, on towards the Tower to drop off their things.

Harry just sighed as they both ducked into a shortcut through a door that was pretending to be a solid wall, which lead up from the fourth floor and kicked them out next to the staircase that connects the 6th floor to the 7th.

"Thanks, Ginny. Let's just drop off this stuff then get down to the Hospital Wing. First Kes, now Neville too. Maybe we should just reserve two beds now, so we don't have to worry about it later in the year?" Harry's attempt to lighten the mood was lame at best, but Ginny did manage a bit of a smile as they approached the Fat Lady's painting.

"Password, Dears?"

"Honour."

"Correct." She smile down at them and swung forward.

Twenty minutes later found Ginny and Harry in the Hospital wing sitting on the bed next to Neville's, who had thick bandages wrapped around his both his hands and most of his forearms. "They still hurting you, mate?"

"Nah, Madame Pomfrey gave me a pain potion once she was sure that the boil solution was working. Apparently boils caused by potions, are different than ones caused by spells or plants."

"Really? That is kind of interesting."

"So what happened after we left? You looked really upset when you came in Harry?"

Harry gave a shortened version of Snape's unfairness, and was just as gratified when his two best friends rose to his defense, just as Ginny had. They passed the time waiting for Neville to get his bandages off by bad mouthing Snape, and devising various ways that they might exact revenge. The Medi-Witch came out of her office a little before dinner was about to start and checked Neville's injuries. She re-wrapped them again with bandages soaked in a healing solution, but they were just around his hands now, and mostly only around the fingers.

"Right then, Mr. Longbottom, you're free to go. You can take the bandages off before you turn in for the night. There will probably be some residual pain, but that should clear up by morning."

"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey."

"You're welcome, dear. Now off you go. Supper should be starting soon."

They thanked her again then left for supper, making sure to hurry down the stairs this time so as not to have a repeat of that mornings adventure. "I've been thinking about that dog-beast on the third floor."

"What about it Kestrel? Besides the fact that I am most likely going to have nightmares for the rest of the year?"

Kestrel nodded her agreement. "Me too, Ginny, but besides that, did anyone else notice what it was standing on? I didn't at the time, because, you know, I was terrified. However, since I really had nothing too worrying to think about once Pomfrey said Neville was going to be alright, I've been thinking about it non-stop."

"It was standing on something? Besides the floor you mean? I was a little bit too busy worrying about the fact that it had three heads, that and that the door was stuck."

"Do be daft, Harry. It looked like it was standing on a wooden door in the floor."

"So you think maybe it was guarding something?"

"I dunno, maybe? I mean what other explanation could make sense to have a creature like that in a school? Especially when they could, you know, keep it hidden somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, and not run the risk of a student happening by the thing and being eaten!"

"What would they want to hide here though?" Ginny asked as they made it once again to the Entrance Hall, this time with no mishaps.

"Something valuable I expect." Neville shrugged. "I mean, I remember my dad saying once that there was 'no Wizard in Britain greater than Dumbledore', so what better place to keep something safe than here at Hogwarts?" The continued to speculate about what might be hidden the school, their ideas getting crazier and crazier the longer the talked, taking their regular seats at the table.


	8. Chapter 8

The next several weeks flew by, with the only highlight being that second Saturday, when Neville's broom arrived with the morning post. It was hidden inside a long rectangular package, but anyone with a sufficient imagination could guess what it was. There was a folded up piece of paper attached to it and Neville snatched it off the package before Kestrel could grab it, unfolded it and read:

"_Congrats on being made Seeker, Neville!_

_Also, glad to hear that Kestrel is doing better too. McGonagall asked me to send along your broom since you'd need it for Quidditch. This is a large privilege you've been given, Neville. There hasn't been a first year allowed to play Quidditch at Hogwarts in over a century. Don't take it for granted._

_Now that the serious bit is over, since your Gran and I are so proud of you (your mum would be too) we decided to kip together with Sirius (since he insisted) and got you a bit of a gift to celebrate. DO NOT OPEN this in the Great Hall. We want it to be a surprise for the rest of the school at your first game. I have no doubt that the students are already guessing what this is, they just don't know the make of it._

_Remember keep it a secret!_

_Congratulations again and lots of love from me and Gran,_

_Dad._"

Neville did as requested and resisted the temptation to open the box and see what was inside. Instead he placed it under the table between the feet of himself and his friends. They were all practically vibrating with excitement and couldn't wait to get back to the Common Room, to see what kind of broom it was.

There spirits couldn't even be dampened when Malfoy and a few of the other Slytherins strode up to the table.

"How're the hands Longbottom, pathetic how you can't even brew a simple potion."

Neville ignored the insult and replied congenially, "My hands are fine, thanks for the concern Malfoy."

"What's so important in that package that it you can't open it for everyone to see? Or maybe you're just too embarrassed to open it?"

"No, not embarrassed. I was just asked not to open it here. I can say though that it's really thanks to you, Draco, that I got it to begin with. Cheers mate!"

Other than that slight hiccup the rest of October flew by for the four friends, Draco never found out that they were the once that jinxed him. It turns out he had been hit by the secondary trap they had lain on the stairs leading down to the dungeons, since like them, he had not turned up for the duel. Draco getting hit by that prank had also served the unexpected dual purpose that he was not able to spread the rumour that they were cowards, since every time he tried to speak the only thing that came out was rainbow foam, and by time it had worn off he had completely forgotten about it.

It was now Halloween and in Charms class the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws were learning the levitation charm, with mixed successes all around the room. Some of the Ravenclaws had already managed to levitate the feathers they were using, and Hermione, Harry, and Ginny had also managed it. Neville was prodding at his feather in frustration and Kestrel was trying to balance hers on her nose instead. Next to Ginny, Ron was waving his arm back and forth in an overly exaggerated motion, almost hitting several people behind and beside him.

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, as he walked around the room, using stacks of books as stepping stones. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too. Remember Wizard Baruffio who said 's' instead of 'f' and ended up with a buffalo on is chest."

Once he was on the other side of the room, helping a few Ravenclaws, Ron scoffed as he waved his wand again. "I don't see how saying the words proper is going to help much with this ruddy spell."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Well let's see, I've been saying it right, and my feather's floating. Were as you think you're saying it right and yours is not. So, what conclusion do you draw from that, brother of mine?"

Ron grumbled and swished his wand again, "_Wingardium Leviosar_."

"No, Ron. It's Levi-O-sa, not Levi-o-SA." Hermione said with a shy smile.

The redhead boy just scowled at her. "Well if you're so clever you do it then."

"O-okay." She pushed the sleeve of her robe up a little and deftly swished and flicked her wand. "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" The feather Hermione had been practicing on floated up, up, up towards the ceiling, swaying softly back and forth.

"Well done, Ms. Granger, take a point for Gryffindor."

"Thank you, Professor Flitwick."

Ron huffed as Ginny gave him a haughty look as she set her feather to floating again, moving it over to tickle her twin on the side of his face. "Gerrof it, Ginny!" Kestrel and Harry joined in Ginny's laughter, while Neville continued to try and get his feather to even twitch.

It was a chilly wind that followed them on their way down to Herbology from Charms. Just as they entered the courtyard Kestrel wrapped her scarf around her face, so that only her eyes were showing. "I hate the cold, it's stupid."

Even though her voice was severely muffled, Harry had no problem understanding her, it was an old complaint. He rolled his eyes at Neville who was walking on his other side. "Yes, because that's intelligent."

"Shut it Potter, or I'll hex you so hard you won't be able to sit for a week."

Ginny, who was walking with Ron just behind them, giggled as Kestrel made a rude gesture in Harry's general direction. She then turned back to Ron, "She's not that bad. She's just trying to fit in."

"Yes well, if she wants to fit in she should stop trying to be an insufferable know-it-all. It's a wonder she has **any** friends."

Ron and Ginny almost tripped as Hermione shoved her way between them hurrying across the courtyard, and into a corridor that would lead her back into the castle. Ron hastily covered his head with his hands as Ginny and Kestrel whirled on him, wands raised.

"You utter prat!" Ron quickly decided that it would be in his best interest to get to the Greenhouses and the safety of Professor Sprouts watchful gaze.

Hermione did not show up for Herbology, or lunch, or any other class after that. Once class had started, McGonagall questioned Ginny and Kestrel where Hermione was. They quickly told her, though left out Ron's name, that someone had said something to upset her and that she hadn't been seen since before Herbology. McGonagall scowled but said nothing as she went about helping those Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs that needed it.

As soon as their flying lesson was over and still with no sign of Hermione, Ginny and Kestrel gave their things to Harry and a waiting Neville and went off to find her.

"You better be prepared to apologize once they find her Ron."

"Yeah, mate, Neville's right. You do not want Kes holding a grudge. Girl's vicious when it comes to revenge."

Ron gulped loudly and paled ass they made their way up to the Tower before heading down for the Halloween Feast.

Thousands of live bats hung from the walls and ceiling, wings fluttering, while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter. The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, and instead of the usual meal of roast beef, chicken, steaks, and the like, there were mounds of cakes, and pastries, and candies. There was easily enough candy to put anyone into a sugar coma for the next several weeks. The Great Hall seemed to be filled with more noise than was usual as the students filled their stomachs, and pockets, with candy.

Neville asked Lavender Brown if she had seen any of her dormmates. "Well yes, last I saw Ginny and Kestrel were still up in the girl's toilet trying to convince Hermione to come down to the feast." Neville thanked her and went back to his own supper.

Harry and Neville kept an eye out for the three girls, hoping that they would make it down for some of the feast, but sticking a few of the various treats into their pockets just in case.

Ron was just helping himself to thirds when one of the doors at the back of the castle swung open with such force that the crash they emitted as they hit the wall, echoed throughout the room, throwing the Great Hall into a stunned silence, as everyone turned to stare at a harried Professor Quirrel.

"TROLL! Troll in the dungeon!" He paused in the space between the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables to catch his breath. "Thought you ought to know." With his warning delivered the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor promptly feinted, head only just missing the Ravenclaw bench.

The previously noisy Hall began to fill with noise again, though this time with the sounds of panicked children screaming instead of their joyful laughter. As panic began to grip the students, Dumbledore rose from his seat, wand to his throat. "SILENCE!"

Every person stopped and turned to stare at the aged Headmaster. He continued speaking in a loud but much calmer tone of voice. "Prefects you will lead your housemates to their Common Rooms, in a calm and orderly manner. Teachers to the dungeons." Those conscious members of the staff swiftly exited the Great Hall out through a side door, and various Prefects began calling out orders to the younger forms.

Percy's voice cut through the din of the other houses and commanded the attention of his charges. "First years form a line behind me. Stick close now, I don't want anyone to get separated."

They quickly and efficiently started to make their way out of the Hall when a thought suddenly occurred to Harry. "Percy!" Harry shoved his way up to just behind the Prefect. "Percy. Kestrel, Ginny, and Hermione are missing."

"What, where are they?"

"Lavender mentioned earlier that they were up in the girl's loo on the fourth floor, but they might not be there now. Hermione was really upset earlier and took off. After classes had let out for the day Ginny and Kes went off to find her. We haven't seen them since." They had reached the marble stairs that led to the main stairwell at this point.

Percy was pale as he shook his head. "There's nothing to be done for it right now. I'll get you lot back to the tower then go and look for them. As long as they are no where near the dungeons they should be fine."

"That's not good enough! That's my sister –"

"That's my sister too, Potter! If you think I am not worried you are sorely mistaken. Now get back in line." The Prefect snarled as they hit the second floor landing.

Harry dropped back to walk beside Neville who gave him a look. Harry nodded and as they passed the statue of Grendel the Glorious, they ducked out of line and hid behind it, no one noticing as they were all too concerned with their own safety. Once they could no longer hear the sounds of their housemates the stood and hurried back down to the second floor and dodging down the corridor ran up the west staircase, a rickety, narrow stair that clung tightly to the wall, and took it up to the fourth floor.

They smell that greeted them as they turned down the hall that the girl's toilet was on told them that the troll was no longer in the dungeons, if indeed it ever had been. The troll was snuffling at the air, feet scuffing across the rough stone of the floor, as it dragged a great dirty club behind it.

The watched with bated breath as the troll ducked its massive head into the girl's loo. At first there were no screams and the boys began to hope that they girls had already left. A piercing scream tearing through the empty hall dashed the boys of that happy thought, and they raced into the washroom, ducking in behind the troll, plastering themselves against the wall next to the destroyed door.

Hermione was crouched down under the sinks, trying to remain as small and unnoticeable as possible, while Kestrel threw rocks at its thick, gray hide, trying to get it's attention, so that Ginny could crawl out from underneath the wreckage of the stall. Neville joined in with Kestrel and began throwing the sweets and cakes he had shoved into his pockets. The beast paid no mind to either of there efforts, and zeroed in on Hermione's shaking form. Ginny pulled herself out from under the wreckage, red hair ruffled and smudges of dirt tracked with tears on her cheeks.

The troll took a step towards Hermione, and Ginny and Harry both reacted simultaneously. Ginny grabbed the nearest piece of wood and swung it hard into the back of one of the troll's knees and Harry leaped on the trolls back, pulling himself up using the monsters sad excuse of a vest.

It turned slowly to glare down at the two Gryffindor girls as Neville motioned for Hermione to move over to him. Just as Harry made it to the creatures head, it heard Hermione slip on a chunk of sink, and it spun back around quicker than thought possible for a creature of its size.

Harry grabbed a hold of the few hairs on the trolls head and gave a vicious tug as Kestrel and Ginny yelled the only spells they could think of "_Rictusempra_!" The tickling charm did nothing but making the creature scratch at its arm.

Harry pulling on his hair however was a bit more noticeable, and it reached around and grabbed Harry's leg, pulling him around to dangle in front of its face. Harry fumbled with his wand nearly dropping it in his haste to remove it from his pocket. He aimed his own spell at the troll's legs, "_Petrificus Totalis_!" The spell bounced off harmlessly much to his dismay.

Just as Harry was making peace that this was the way he was going to go, Hermione's desperate cry of '_Wingardium Leviosa_' cut through the air, and all turned to watch as the trolls club, floated out of his hand and up above its head. The creature stared dumbly at it as the charm was cancelled and the club crashed into its face. The creature staggered dropping Harry as it reached up to clutch at its nose, Harry wasted no time in scrambling over to the wall and out from under the creatures now staggering feet. It stumbled a bit more before letting out a groan and toppling over crashing to the floor, head facing away from the smashed in door way.

Before the five could even begin celebrating that they were in fact alive and not troll food, McGonagall ran into the destroyed lavatory followed closely by Percy, Quirrel and a limping Snape.

"Good Heaven's. What happened here?" She demanded, ignoring Professor Quirrel who had taken one look at the troll and feinted again. All five of them started talking at the same time, each one trying to be heard over the others, until the Transfiguration Professor called them to order.

"Enough! One at a time if you please."

Hermione voice was shaking when she spoke but it was clear. "It's my fault Professor. Kestrel and Ginny had come looking for me when I didn't show up to my afternoon lessons. They were trying to get me to come down to the feast. We were just about to leave when the troll came in. They were next to the door way so it didn't see them when it came in."

Snape turned the full force of his sneer onto Harry and Neville, who were both staring at the slowly spreading wet stain just above his right knee. He glared at them and they both dropped their gazes to the floor. "And what are your excuses Potter? Longbottom?"

Harry addressed his answer to McGonagall. "Don't punish Percy, Professor. He told me that once we got to the Common Room, he'd go find a teacher and go looking for Kestrel and Ginny. I'm not sorry I disobeyed though. If we hadn't the girls might've been dead by now. So if you're going to give anyone detention, it should be me."

"And me, I came along willingly. So if you have to punish anyone it should be me and Harry."

McGonagall stared at them hard for a few moments, nostrils flaring and skin pale. "5 points will be taken from the both of you, for disobeying the instructions of your Prefect. And 5 points will be awarded for each of you. For sheer dumb luck!"

The only thing that they could do was gaze at her in shocked silence. They'd lost ten points but gained 15. "Now you will follow Mr. Weasley back to the Tower. No detours, the Halloween feast will be continuing back in the Common Room. Understood?"

"Yes Professor."

"Good. Off you go then."

They quickly filed out behind a scowling Percy. Harry felt immeasurably guilty for getting the Prefect in trouble. "Look, Percy, I'm really sorry I didn't listen to you. I had no business going after a troll, but –"

"Be quiet Potter." He snapped irritably. Ginny looked like she wanted to snap at her older brother, but Harry shook her off.

It wasn't until they were almost at the Portrait Hole that Percy spoke again. "Thank you Potter for saving Ginny. I know you only went because Kestrel was –"

"I would have gone even if it had only been Ginny, or Hermione, or anyone else if I had known that they were there and they hadn't had known about the Troll! Ginny's my friend just as much as Kes is."

Percy stared down in astonishment at the much smaller boy, who stared up at him reproachfully with green eyes blazing. The two stared at one another for a few moments more before Percy finally nodded and gave the password to the painting. "Go on and get yourselves some supper. You are not to mention this little escapade at all. Most of the school will know by tomorrow anyway."

They all nodded and filed into the Common Room, heading for the table that was groaning under the weight of so much food. Once they had what they liked the made there way over to there usual table.

There were joined by Hermione for a few minutes, she was looking at all of them, a certain shyness and uncertainty about her features. "Thank you, for saving me."

"You're our friend Hermione, there's no need to thank us." Said Ginny, "But you're welcome all the same." Hermione gave them all another quick smile then hurried off to get a plate of food for herself.


	9. Chapter 9

As November rolled around the weather became chillier and the wind more biting, meaning Kestrel refused to leave the dormitory with layering up and covering as much of her exposed skin as she possibly could. Luckily she had gotten a cousin of hers in Hufflepuff, Nymphadora Tonks, or 'it's just Tonks!' as she preferred, to show her how the Shrinking Charm worked. Now she just shrunk her belongings and stuffed them into a corner of her bag when inside the Castle.

While snow had yet to make an appearance at Hogwarts, every morning the grass around the school was crunchy with frost, and there was always a thin layer of ice on the Black Lake, that the Giant Squid took great joy in breaking apart with its tentacles.

Neville was becoming more nervous by the day as his first Quidditch match drew near. The team had been practicing three nights a week since the second weekend of October, to get into game-shape. The team couldn't be happier with their young Seekers performance and kept telling him so when they saw him being down and unsure of himself. It didn't help that by now everyone in school knew that Neville was Gryffindors Seeker, and their opponents for the upcoming match, Slytherin, took every available opportunity to harass him.

Luckily his friends kept him grounded and sane, and helped him keep up with all of his homework. They were taking a much needed break outside after lunch before they hit their homework, the Friday before his first game, Hermione having just showed them a fire spell. Blue Bell Flames, little balls of blue fire that you could keep in a jar that gave off waves of heat, and Kestrel was asking her what book she had found it in. She wanted to see if she could keep it in something smaller than a jar, and maybe wear the flame around her neck to keep warm at all times.

Neville, Harry, and Ron (who had apologized to Hermione the day after the troll incident under pain of Ginny's infamous Bat-Bogey Hex) were arguing about which Quidditch team was better, the Chudley Cannons or the Fitchburg Finches.

"Oi, Longbottom!" Neville looked up from his friendly debate with Harry and Ron and paled slightly at the sight of two of the three Slytherin Chasers walking over to them from across the courtyard. Graham Montague and Adrian Pucey were both in their Third Year's and this was their second year on the team. They were the two most responsible for tormenting Neville during the past few weeks

"What do you two want now?" Neville sighed tiredly. This was the first time in about a week, that they had been able to catch him without another member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team present. He had been rather hoping that since the game was tomorrow they had given up, and would save there special brand of cruelty for the pitch, where he could just happily fly circles around them on his Nimbus Two-Thousand.

"Just coming to see how our favourite little Seeker is doing." Said Pucey.

"Oh I'm sure." Ginny snapped, flipping her mane of red hair over her shoulder. "We know you're here just to try and scare Neville. If it hasn't worked before I doubt it's going to now, so shove off, you foul gits."

"Oh look, Montague, the little blood traitor speaks. How quaint."

Ginny's face went as red as her hair, and Hermione clamped a hand down on the volatile red-head's hand, preventing her from reaching for her wand.

"Those are big words coming from someone who can't even cast a decent leg-locker curse, Pucey." Kestrel pulled down her scarf enough so that the Chaser could get the full affect of the contempt on her face. "I bet you use a sticking charm on your gloves so you even have a chance of catching a Quaffle."

Before any of the first years could react Pucey had drawn his wand and had it pressed up underneath Kestrel's chin, forcing her up onto her toes. "Do you really want to test that little theory of yours, Black?"

Pucey was halted by a wand tip being placed under his own chin. "Uh-uh-uh, now Adrian, that's not very nice, threatening the cute ickle firstie. Even if she is just a wee bit over her head." George said pressing his wand just a bit harder under the dark haired Slytherin's chin. A quick glance over his shoulder told Adrian exactly what he had expected. Fred had his own wand trained on Montague, and Lee Jordan was keeping a lookout for Professors.

"Now if you'd be so kind as to lower your wand, I do believe we all have a Herbology class to get to. Isn't that right Fred?"

"Indeed George. Wouldn't want to be late for that know would we?"

"Most certainly not. What do you say boys? Let's let bygones be bygones for the time being, yeah?"

There were a few tense seconds when no one moved and Kestrel had to shift on the tips of her toes to keep her balance, but eventually Pucey and Montague lowered their wands and stalked off in the direction of the Greenhouses. Though not with out a parting threat on Pucey's part. "This is far from over Black; these two won't always be around to save you from cashing galleons you can't spend. See you in the air Longbottom." They shoved through the first years and exited the courtyard.

It was only once the two Slytherins had gone that the twins and Lee put their wands away. Kestrel had dropped back onto the edge of the fountain, her whole body trembling in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.

"Are you all right, Kes?"

"I'm fine Harry, just a little unnerved. I didn't even see him draw his wand." She turned her gaze to George and gave him a shaky, but grateful smile. "Thanks George. I really need to learn to stop letting my mouth run away from me."

"No problem, little bird, Pucey's an arse anyway." George winked and grinned down at her. "Besides I'm pretty sure you're right about his Chasing skills. Slytherin picks their players more for brute strength than skill."

Neville paled at that. "Gee, thanks George, that makes me feel loads better!"

Fred slung a companionable arm around his shoulder, pulling him along as he headed towards the Greenhouses. "Not to worry Neville, old chap. That's what you have George and me in the air with you for."

George appeared on Neville's other side and slung his arm over his shoulders as well. "Fred's right, old bean, there's no need to worry about Pucey or any of his slimy slithering, mates. They'll be so worried about dodging our bludgers,"

"That they'll have no time to harass you at all!"

Neville grinned at their banter, feeling suddenly much more optimistic about the game tomorrow. "Thanks guys, you better get going though or you really will be late for Herbology."

Lee glanced at his watch and yelped, and the three boys ran off waving over their shoulders as they disappeared out of the courtyard.

Ron and Ginny couldn't help but shake their heads at their older brother's antics. "Lucky they were happening by this way wasn't it?"

"I'll say. Come on let's go back to the Tower, where it's warm and we have no further chances of running into any Slytherins. I think I've had enough of the House of Snakes for today."

The morning of the long anticipated Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Quidditch match dawned bright and clear, a perfect day for a game. Now if only Neville's nerves would settle down and let him enjoy it. As it was he had barely touched the food before him except for a few nibbles of toast and a glass of orange juice that Harry had threaten to hex him if he didn't drink it.

"Come on Nev, you need to eat something. You know you don't want to fly on an empty stomach."

"Harry's right Neville, just one piece of toast."

"I'm pretty sure if I eat anything it's just going to end up all over my robes." Neville said glumly, looking a little green around the edges.

"Remember what Fred and George said. The only thing you have to worry about is the Snitch, leave the bludgers and Slytherins to them." Ron said around a mouthful of pancakes.

"That's disgusting, Ronald. Are you trying to make him sick?" Ginny slapped her twin in the back of his head then turned to Neville. "Ignore him, he wasn't properly house trained. He does have a point though. Fred and George may be tricksters, but they take Quidditch very seriously. If they say that you won't have to worry about the bludgers, you will **not** have to worry about the bludgers. Just fly like we know you can, and get that Snitch!"

The anxious Seeker thought about what she had said for a few moments before picking up a piece of toast. His friends grinned in triumph and returned to their own breakfasts.

It wasn't long after Neville had powered through three slices of toast that Oliver Wood, Captain and Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team walked up behind Neville, the rest of the team with him. "Ready Neville?"

The toast suddenly tasted like sand in his mouth and he swallowed hard. "As I'll every be?"

"That's the spirit!" chorused the twins.

"You better make sure not a single bludgers comes near him, do you hear me?" Ginny hissed up at them from her spot across from Neville. The looks that Ginny and Kestrel where giving them promised retribution if they didn't do as they were told.

Both twins bowed as much as they could in the space between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables. "Your wish is our command, ladies."

Neville stood from his seat then and bid his friends a quick goodbye and followed the team out of the Great Hall and down to the pitch.

Once everyone was changed Oliver stood in front of them, eyeing them all hard like he expected one of them to just up and quit on him.

"Okay, men," he said, beginning to pace back and forth in front of the bench.

"And women," said Chaser Angelina Johnson.

"And women," Wood agreed. "This is it."

"The big one," said Fred.

"The one we've all been waiting for," said George.

"We know Oliver Wood's speech by heart," Fred told Neville, "they've been pretty much the same since last year."

"That's enough you two. This is the best team we've had since Charlie left to go traipsing off with Dragons halfway through last year. We're going to win this year. I can feel it. Now let's go out there and give Slytherin the trouncing that they so rightly deserve."

Neville couldn't help his nerves when the Gryffindor team entered the Pitch, the sound was deafening. Oliver clapped him on the shoulder and the First Year nearly jumped out of his boots. He looked up at the stocky Fifth Year, face pale. "Buck up Neville. You'll do fine. Just do what you've been doing in practice and don't worry about anything else."

Neville nodded, and slinging his broom over his shoulder, followed his teammates out onto the pitch.

Wood and the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint, who was taller and broader in the shoulders than Oliver was, shook hands when Madame Hooch told them to. He had dark hair, grey eyes, and large crooked teeth and rough looking black hair. When his gaze slid over Neville, he knew that this was not someone to underestimate.

At the whistle everyone mounted their brooms and kicked off into the air. Madam Hooch released the bludgers, which were quickly followed by the Beaters, tossed the Quaffle into the air and released the Snitch which vanished from sight quicker than thought. Katie Bell swooped in and snagged the Quaffle, and the game was on!

Neville pulled up steeply and climbed high above the pitch eyes scanning for any glint of gold, remembering to use his peripheral vision more that looking straight ahead for the elusive winged gold ball. One of the Slytherin beaters was always flying underneath Neville where ever he was on the pitch, ready to hit a bludgers at him at a moments notice. Fred and George though were true to their words and were dominating the bludgers, easily keeping the other team from scoring with well timed hits and swings. Gryffindor was leading 90 – 20 when Neville looked and saw the Slytherin Seeker, Terrence Higgs, marking him. Suddenly he crouched low over his broom and shoved down on the handle, dropping into a steep dive, weaving in and out of the Chasers, who scrambled to be anywhere but in front of the furiously flying Neville.

Terrence Higgs was on his trail, matching him swerve and turn. Neville suddenly swung the broom around in a 180 and flew straight at Higgs; twisting so he skimmed by Higgs, giving him a cheeky grin as he passed.

"And that was a brilliant fake by Gryffindor Seeker, Neville Longbottom. Even I believed that dive!" Lee Jordan's voice rang out across the Pitch as he commentated on the match between the two bitter rival houses. "And it's Katie Bell with the Quaffle. It's Bell's first year playing Quidditch, but with the way she flies you'd think the girl was born on a broom. Look at the way she flies around the Slytherin Chaser, like they're just sitting there with their wands up their –"

"Mr. Jordan! Kindly keep your commentary clean."

"Yes Professor. Sorry Professor. And that's a goal by Chaser Angelina Johnson! Gryffindor lead 120 – 20!"

It had been bound to happen at some point during the game, the twins as much as they were like bludgers themselves, could not be everywhere at once. Luckily he heard George shout his name and, reacting on pure instinct, Neville hauled back hard on the handle of his broom and swerved to the side, the iron ball just skimming the back of his robes.

As he twisted he caught a hint of gold and turned his dodge into a dive, brown eyes intent on the erratically flying Snitch. Higgs was on the other end of the pitch but was making a good effort to try and cut Neville off.

Montague dodged out of Neville's way not wanting to be called for fouling, and Alicia Spinnet took advantage of his momentary lapse in concentration to steal the Quaffle from him and toss it to Angelina, who streaked up the pitch towards the Slytherin Hoops.

A Bludger hit by a Slytherin Beater whizzed by the back of Neville's head just as his fingers would have closed around the Snitch. He cursed in annoyance as the snitch pulled ahead just far enough to evade the grasping Seekers hands. He pulled out of his pursuit and flew above the Pitch, circling, looking for another flash of gold.

While he circled, Fred and George were once more all over the Pitch, harassing Slytherin with their superior Beating skills, while the three Gryffindor Chasers continued to rack up the points.

By the time Neville say the snitch again, the score was now 230 – 100 in favour of Gryffindor. Higgs was closer to the Snitch this time but Neville was on the better broom. With a Bludger shot by Fred to clear his way of Slytherin Chasers, Neville was free to open up the Nimbus to its top speed and catch up with Higgs.

They were neck and neck, Higgs repeatedly smashing against the much lighter Gryffindor, trying to knock him off course. Neville hung on as best he could and stuck tight to Higgs, side, giving the larger boy less room to try and knock him off with. Neville leaned forward over his handle, coaxing just a bit more speed from his broom, eking out ahead by the few inches he needed to wrap his fingers around the fluttering golden ball.

Higgs rammed into him one last time, just as Hooch blew her whistle signalling an end to the game. Neville had not been expecting it and shot off in towards the center of the pitch, clutching to his broom. He managed to pull himself out of his spin and was braced by either side by Katie and Alicia who had been closest when he caught the Snitch. They asked if he was all right while at the same time hugging him and congratulating him on a spectacular catch.

Gryffindor had won the match 390 – 120!

There was a raging party in Gryffindor Tower that night. Fred and George had disappeared from the change rooms and hadn't been seen until they turned up with several kegs of Butterbeer floating behind them as they came through the portrait hole.

Percy looked like he was about to loudly protest when George walked over to him, and had a hurried whispered conversation with his older more responsible brother. It was several tense moments later that Percy merely sighed and nodded, waving a hand as if to say 'get on with it then'. George clapped him on the shoulder then went to join his twin and help with the set up.

Neville was the hero of the hour, having lived up to Oliver's expectations and more. By the time he had made it over to the corner where his friends were sitting, he had been congratulated by the whole House, twice! "Phew! I thought I'd never get away. Thanks Harry." He said as he took a sip of the Butterbeer Harry handed him, and sunk back against the squashy armchair he had dropped into.

"So, how's it feel to be the man of the hour, Nev."

"I don't think I can handle being famous, Harry." He tried to keep a straight face, but the corners of his mouth kept twitching and in the end he joined in with his friend's laughter.


	10. Chapter 10

After the Quidditch match that Saturday life at Hogwarts returned to pretty much normal, classes resumed as did Homework. Since Oliver was no longer trying to get Neville caught up to the rest of the team practices had dropped down to twice a week, though they tended to run a bit longer to compensate. McGonagall had gone around the second week of December asking who was staying for the Holidays and who was planning on going home. Harry, Kestrel and Neville happily signed their names on the list of those who were leaving. Ginny and her brothers all signed their names down as going home as well. When Kestrel asked at lunch that morning Ginny explained that her parents had been planning on going to visit her brother Charlie in Romania, but the Preserve had gotten a surprise addition of two Ukrainian Iron Belly's and they were no longer accepting guests or visitors.

"You guys should come to our place for a New Year's party!" Ginny said excitedly. "I'll ask mum and dad when we get home and send you a letter." Kestrel nodded, just as enthusiastically as Ginny, and bent back over her Charms essay.

Since Neville had beyond proved himself on the Pitch the Slytherins had found other things to attempt to provoke their Gryffindor counterparts about. Not that it had done much good, as they all tended to ignore Draco Malfoy and his merry band of Slytherin sycophants whenever they came by. That trend almost ended when one of the Slytherin Chasers made a passing comment about mother's and Christmas.

They hadn't even realized he had been talking to, or about them, until one of them, when asked later they would never remember which one, had said "Isn't that right Longbottom? Oh that's right your Mum isn't quite all right is she?" Harry and Kestrel leapt on Neville as he started to surge to his feet, keeping him seated. The Slytherin's laughed deafeningly as the made their way out of a side door towards the Dungeons. Once they were out of sight Neville fought free of his siblings' hold and stormed out of the Great Hall.

Kestrel's hair had gone a very angry red colour, very similar to dried blood, as she stared hatefully at the door the Slytherins had left through. "I going to turn those berks into bowtruckles and use them for firewood."

"Neville gets first crack, Kes." Harry didn't even flinch when Kestrel turned her glare on him. "You know the Marauder Code. Neville gets first shot at the tossers. If he doesn't want it, then they are all yours. It'll have to be pulled off either before we leave, or after we come back. They're leaving for the holidays too."

"Or we can just get them on the train."

They spent the rest of their lunch coming up with various plans on how best to get back at the Slytherin Chasers.

As December continued, despite it almost being the Holidays, the Professors continued on as if there would be no Winter Hols, and exams were right around the corner. McGonagall was still strict, Flitwick overly excitable, and Snape just as nasty. He took it upon himself to spread out the humiliation between the three of them, depending on his mood and which of them walked into class first.

Unfortunately for Kestrel that honour fell to her on the last day of classes. Kestrel spent the whole class being Snape's verbal punching bag and listening to the green and silver side of the room, minus a select few, howl with laughter. Harry, Neville, who were working behind her, and Ginny who was at the same work bench, all tried there best to keep her calm. If not calm then at least they tried to help her to ignore the jibes of a man who should have known better.

It was always easy to tell when Kestrel was about to reach her boiling point, as much control as she had over her Metamorphing, when her emotions got too much for her to control she began to loose it. As it was by the time class was almost over her hair had gone from black to a sickly muddy purple colour, the roots a bit brighter leaning toward dark red. Her knuckles were white as she stirred her forgetfulness potion, eyes locked on the swirling liquid as she tried to block out all other sound.

Kestrel bottled her potion and handed it to Ginny who brought it up with hers and Kestrel cleaned their station. Kestrel made it out of the class without loosing her temper, which was a miracle in and of itself, but as the students were making there way up out of the Dungeons Malfoy snarked from behind them. "What's the matter, Black, can't take a little good natured teasing?"

"Not when it's coming from a man twice my age and responsible for teaching students magic. But then what can I expect from the man who has a snivelling little bit of toad spawn like you for a godson, eh Malfoy?"

"What'd you say Black?"

"Aw were the words to big, Draco, should I use smaller ones and speak slower? I knew you lacked a certain bit of intelligence, what with the type of people you hang out with, but I didn't think you were actually slow, Malfoy." Kestrel's tone was pitying and slightly sympathetic and had many of the Slytherin's glowering at her hatefully.

Pansy scoffed as she looked Kestrel up and down, her nose wrinkling in disgust. "Is that the best you can come up with Kestrel? Though I guess we shouldn't expect anything less from the daughter of the only Black who wasn't sorted into Slytherin. Everyone knows that those who lack any _real_ intelligence get sorted into Gryffindor."

"If that's true, how ever did you manage to talk your way into Slytherin, Pansy?"

Pansy bristled in annoyance and made as if to pull her wand but she manages to calm herself at the last moment, throwing the Black Heiress a tight smile. "Have your laughs now Black, while you can." The Slytherins all laughed cruelly, obviously sharing some joke or another, as the made their way passed the Gryffindors and up towards the Great Hall for lunch.

"Oh I plan to, and as many as I can at your expense, Parkinson."

Harry waited until they had all gone from sight before turning to Kestrel and saying, "Come on Kes, let's get to the Tower and finish packing up our things. We don't want to be scrambling before the Express leaves tomorrow."

Kestrel, whose hair was still that muddy purple colour she got when annoyed beyond reason, only nodded and spun on her heel, not bothering to wait and see if her friends were keeping up.

It turned out that Neville did not in fact want to exact revenge on the Slytherin Chasers, citing that he could get back at them much more effectively on the Pitch, and so gave Kestrel the go ahead on getting payback on his behalf. It took her a little while to work out, between packing and finishing up last bits of homework so she'd have none to do over the holidays, but she did manage to come up with something. Enlisting the help of Tonks for some tricky Charms work that she wasn't quite good enough to do herself yet, she found out where Pucey and his group of friend's usually sat at breakfast, and with the help of the Twins, got it in place.

Kestrel was seated on the side of the Gryffindor table that gave her a good view of the Slytherin table, with out making it too obvious that she was spying. Harry sat next to her and he, Neville, and Ron were discussing possibly getting together over the holidays to play a pick-up game of Quidditch. There was a shout from the Slytherin table as students seated around Pucey stared at him in astonishment. Pucey continued to eat his breakfast as if nothing was the matter. One of his fellow Chasers tapped him on the shoulder, and once he had his attention motioned at his robes.

Pucey looked down at himself and shook his head, clearly seeing nothing amiss, and went back to eating. The hall began to fill with whispers and smothered laughter as more and more people took notice of Pucey's predicament. Finally apparently getting fed up with his housemates trying to tell him something was wrong, he pulled his wand from apparently nowhere and waved it over himself. He held his arms apart as if to say 'See, nothing wrong here,' and looked down at himself.

His eyes widened in horror as he took in what the Great Hall had been noticing for the past ten minutes. His robes, which he had definitely been wearing a second ago, were no gone and he was wearing nothing but his skivvies in the middle of over 500 students. He stood up, and with as much dignity as he could muster, walked calmly up the row between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables. There was laughter coming from all around him, steadily getting louder, but he managed to ignore it, keeping his pace as he reached the head of his house table.

It wasn't until a voice called out "Nice underwear Pucey!" that Pucey composure broke and he fled the Great Hall, laughter following behind him. Harry and Kestrel shared a high five under the table, but seeing Neville with a massive grin on his face was all the reward they needed. He'd been feeling kind of down since Pucey had brought up his mum, and his housemates had been giving him pitying looks since the incident as well.

"You know he's going to know it was one of us right?"

"Nah, the charms used for this were way above a First Year's level. Besides I enlisted outside help to get it in place. So really it'll take him a while to trace it back to us."

"That and it's not like he hasn't probably done something else to warrant a little payback between now and then anyway." Kestrel said grinning, finishing off the last of her breakfast.

Ginny nodded in agreement. "That is probably true. Well come on, we should head down to the train if we want to get a compartment to ourselves."

The Hogwarts Express rolled into Kings Cross Station a little after 7:30 in the evening, the platform crowded with parents waiting to collect their children. Waiting near the middle of the platform were James Potter and Remus Lupin.

"So how do you think they've really been doing?" Remus asked. His brown eyes were tired and his skin had a pale, sunken look to it, like he hadn't slept for several days. "You know they probably left out quite a few details in their letters home."

James nodded, hands shoved into the pockets of his robe. "You're probably right Remus, but they have each other to lean on, and you know that together they can handle pretty much anything."

"That's true. I am however worried about the reactions Harry seems to be having around Quirrel. He mentioned that it kept happening in a few of his other letters."

"Yeah, I don't know what to make of that. Frank is checking, discretely mind, with a few mates of his in the Department of Mysteries, seeing if they have any insight. But Harry's scar is unique, no one's ever seen anything like it, so strange things are bound to come to light. We'll just take them as they come." James straightened as the Express gave a final bellow of steam and came to a stop. A few moments later there were clicks as the carriage doors unlocked, and the Platform was flooded with a sea of students.

James and Remus scanned the crowd for any sign of their three wayward miscreants. They didn't have to look for long when the saw a shock of hair changing colour from black, to bright blue, to green, yellow, and back to black. Kestrel emerged from the crowd and threw herself at the tiredly smiling Remus. "Uncle Remus!"

He caught her around the middle when she leaped at him and spun her around once. "Hello pup, how are you?"

"I'm great, now. Hiya Uncle James!"

"Hello, love. Where are your brothers?" James ruffled her hair, which had settled on yellow again, showing her happiness.

"Getting our trunks I think."

"Yeah, and next time you can get your own trunk, Black." Harry walked up with a smirking Neville, dragging two trunks behind him, an annoyed look on his face.

"You lost the bet fair and square, Potter. Get over it." She stuck her tongue out at her friend, who returned the gesture.

"Do we even want to know?" James asked as he hugged Harry and Neville around the shoulders, while Remus shrunk there trunks.

All three laughed and chorused together, "No!"

James shook his head and handed Harry and Neville their shrunk trunks, while Kestrel pocketed her own. "All right then. Well let's get you three back home. I bet you're starving. Gran Longbottom said she'd have dinner ready by the time we got back to the Manor."

"Excellent!"

They were joined halfway through dinner by Sirius and Frank, whom Neville and Kestrel leaped from their seats to welcome home. Augusta Longbottom scowled as they returned to their seats. "You two know better than to get up from the table without permission."

"Sorry Gran," they said, heads bowed in apology.

"Apology unnecessary, but accepted. I was going to say, you both know better, but since this is your first time away from home, and you haven't seen your parents in nearly four months, I will let it slide this time." She gave a kind smile over her cup of tea.

"Thanks Gran!"

Dinner continued after that with everyone talking, catching up with what one another had done over the time they had been separated. It didn't take long after everyone had eaten and dessert was served, that talk turned to events at Hogwarts, and more specifically about Quirrel, Harry's scar, and Neville and Kestrel's research into their out of the ordinary sorting.

"What have you two managed to turn up on that front?" Sirius asked, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest.

"Not much, I'm sad to say." Said Neville. "Our original thought was the Castle itself had mucked about with our Sorting. So we looked into that angle first, but came up with nothing. Then Kestrel had the brilliant idea to find a source that predates Hogwarts History books."

"What predates Hogwarts History?" Sirius asked confused.

"That's easy dad, someone who was a part of the History of Hogwarts. I asked the Bloody Baron!"

"And he answered you?" said Frank, surprise clearly written on his face.

Kestrel nodded. "Though….it's not that he wasn't much help, it's just that his answer lead us to more dead ends." She and Neville went on to explain how the Baron thought it may have been the Spirits of the Four Founders who interfered in their sorting. They had been looking for places around the Castle where the essence of their Spirits might congregate, but so far had come up with nothing.

Frank looked thoughtful as he took a sip of his wine. "I'll ask the gents in the DoM to look into this as well. They may have more luck, and they're lacking in things to research right now anyway. Apparently nothing _interesting_ is happening in the Wizarding world right now." The adults shared a laugh at this while the three children rolled their eyes.

"Oh, speaking of interesting," started Harry. "We never wrote to you about the Giant three-headed dog we found at school."

"What?!" The horrified shout of four adults resulted in the quickest explanation in history, as well as several assurances that they had not been hurt, and no, they did not go looking for it again.

"Why would Dumbledore, have a Cerberus locked up in Hogwarts, that doesn't make sense. Especially if all he has holding it in is a simple locking spell that a First Year can counter." Frank was more furious than any of the kids had ever seen him.

"Well we figure since it seems to be standing on some sort of door, it might be guarding something important. Though, why they would hide it in a school, and not keep it at Gringotts is beyond us." Harry said finishing off the last of his cake.

"What with that break in that happened after your Birthday Harry, maybe they thought it would be better near Dumbledore than locked up underground somewhere." This of course led to another round of question and answer and the children did not end up going to bed until very late that evening.

Since they had completed all the homework they had been given by Professors before they left, they had nothing but free time on their hands. They spent most of their holiday leading up to Christmas playing Quidditch or having a Prank War when their father's were home. They received an invitation from Ginny on Christmas Eve inviting them to a New Years Eve Party, to which they replied in the affirmative almost immediately. There was supposed to be some form of Ministry gathering at Longbottom Manor that night and the children had no desire to attend that, to which their father's readily agreed, though Augusta was rather annoyed. As the future Heads of their Houses, they should get used to things such things.

Between Quidditch and pranking, Kestrel still found time to comb through the Longbottom Library looking for books about the four Founders of Hogwarts. They still had yet to find a place where they may be able to contact the Spirits of the Founders anywhere in Hogwarts. She had found a few references to Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, but nothing solid as to where they might find it. She wanted something that includes all four Founders, something besides Hogwarts, which the all had a part in creating, something or someplace that contains a bit of all four of their magic.

It was as she was reading a book entailing the achievements of all the Founders that a possible solution came to her. She quickly flipped to the appendix and searched out where in the book the Sorting Hat was mentioned. She flipped to the proper page and sped through the words, as she reached the end a look of disappointment came over her face. It was only Gryffindor who had created the Hat; no magical assistance was given by any of the other Founders. Kestrel slammed the book shut in annoyance and left the library to join her brothers for a fly before dinner, befire she got really upset and set the library on fire. Again.


	11. Chapter 11

**Authors Note: First off, thank you everyone for all your reviews and favourites. Second, I have sadly discovered that while writing the story line I have in mind, is not going to work starting from year one. Since I basically have this part done, I will finish posting the story as is, but it will end here. I will start posting the new story within the next month or two. Again my sincere apologies.**

Christmas morning dawned bright and clear and Neville would have been more than happy to let it carry on that way. His siblings though had other plans as he was soon made aware of when the charged into his room shouting 'Presents!' at the top of their lungs, and leaping onto his bed.

"You have ten seconds to explain why I shouldn't hex you both and turn you into throw pillows."

Kestrel raised one delicate black eyebrow archly at Neville a small smirk on her face. "Well for one you're not that good at Transfiguration, not yet, and two,"

"PRESENTS!" Harry finished and bounced on the bed again, emphasizing his point.

"I take it this means you would like me to get up?"

"Yes!"

"You know they won't let us start opening presents until we're all there."

Before Neville could think up a snappy sarcastic reply, a great black, shaggy dog came loping into the room and joined the three children on the bed. He snuffled the two alert children, tail wagging, before turning his attention to the still half asleep Neville. He only managed to get his arms halfway up before the dog pounced and began licking him all over his face.

"Ah! No, Gerrof! Bad, no, Padfoot, stop!" Or at least that was what Neville tried to say, he was laughing too hard to make much sense. Once Padfoot had deemed Neville to be awake he transformed back into Sirius and grinned just as wide as his daughter and godson. "Come on Neville, wake up, lazy bones. You can't have a lie-in on Christmas!"

"None of you are going to leave me alone until I'm up are you?" He asked, wiping the drool from his face with his blanket.

"No!"

"Fine I'm up, then! I should return your presents for this. It's the holidays; I should be allowed to sleep in if I want." He said sounding annoyed, his grin betrayed him though. He threw his blanket over top of the other three and fled his room, laughing, while they tried to escape from the fabric.

Once everyone was seated in the spacious sitting room around the tree James, Frank, and Sirius began dispensing gifts, levitating piles to each person. Neville, Harry and Kestrel were playing what appeared to be a strange hand-game that left the five pure-blood wizards confused.

"What are you three doing?" Asked Remus, setting down a copy of that mornings _Daily Prophet_.

"Trying to determine who gets to open the first present."

"And how will…whatever it is you're doing accomplish that, Harry?"

"It's a Muggle game called rock paper scissors. Each person picks one of the three options, Rock beats scissors, scissors beats paper, and paper beats rock. Who ever wins gets to open the first gift. Drat, Kes wins, again."

"It's not my fault you two suck at this game."

Deciding to err on the side of caution and not get the children to explain their strange game further, they motioned to the pile of presents in front of each child. Kestrel grabbed the first gift from her pile and immediately ripped into it, revealing a scarlet red wand holster that could attach to her wrist. She looked over at her dad, who just grinned. "Saw you eyeing one last time we were in Twilfit and Tattings. Chinese Fireball Dragonhide, anti-summoning and with a little drop of blood it'll make it so only you can take your wand from the holster." He was cut off from saying anything further as he was hugged rather enthusiastically by his now bright yellow haired daughter.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"

"You're welcome, luv."

Harry and Neville had each opened a gift from their respective parent while Kestrel was thanking Sirius, to find that they too had received holsters. Harry's was the dark brown of a Hungarian Horntail; Neville's was the iron gray of the Ukrainian Ironbelly. Frank and James both received overjoyed thank you's from their sons.

All in all they each had a pretty good haul this year. Besides her wand holster Kestrel had received several books on the Magical History of Britain from Remus, a necklace from Gran Longbottom, Harry had gotten her some new quills as she had misplaced all but one of hers, and Neville had gotten her a Fire Orchid plant.

Neville had received a photo album of his parents from his Gran, James and Sirius had gone together and gotten him a rather large Dittany plant, and from both Harry and Kestrel had gotten him a new Herbology book that covered the discovery of new magical plants and their care.

Harry had received a Wand polishing kit from Gran Longbottom, Frank had gotten him a copy of the Aurors Handbook, Sirius gave him one of his old Marauder Journals from his first year, and Neville and Kestrel had gotten him an 'Expert Pranksters Kit' from Zonko's Joke Shop, purchased for them by Tonks.

Once gift opening was completed they moved to dining room, where the Longbottom House-Elves had prepared a breakfast meal full of their favourite foods. During breakfast Barnabas and Hedwig returned from delivering Harry, Neville, and Kestrel's gifts to their friends, and in turn returned with gifts of their own for their owners. Ginny had sent each of them some of their favourite sweets, and Hermione had given each a book, Harry had gotten a book on Muggle jokes and pranks, Neville a book on gardening, and Kestrel a Muggle History book covering from the time of the Founders until the early 1980's. They had also received the promised invite from Ginny to a party at the Burrow, to which their parents readily agreed. After breakfast the kids were sent off to find something to occupy their time with until Supper would be served.

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New Years Eve arrived before any of them knew it and Neville, Harry, and Kestrel were scrambling to get ready to Floo over to The Burrow to ring in the New Year with their friends. Their trunks were packed and shrunk, each carrying it in the pockets of their robes. Since the train for Hogwarts left on January 1st, they would be leaving from The Burrow.

They had received a letter from Ginny reminding them of the time and giving her family's Floo address, as well as letting them know that Hermione would be coming too, having received permission from her parents at the last minute.

7:00pm found the three friends lined up outside their fireplace, Gran giving them all last look over, trying to keep straight faces as Sirius and James pulled funny expressions behind her back. Frank saved the three from his mother's fussing by asking her to give him a hand in the Study; he needed help with the Host gifts they were bringing to their own party.

Once Augusta had left Sirius sighed theatrically, "Finally I thought Frank would never get her out of here."

"Why would you need Gran out of the room, Uncle Sirius."

"Because Neville, what we are about to give you would upset your Gran, mostly because she thinks you're too young." James said as he pulled out a thick book from inside his robes. The book was bound leather, obviously old and had seen some use, various papers sticking out from it in random places.

"What is it?" All three asked, eagerly trying to get a look at the book in the man's hands.

"This, children is the secret to our success." Sirius stated pompously as James presented the book with a flourish.

Kestrel tilted her head to the side in confusion as Harry took the book from his father. "I thought you weren't giving us help with making our own Map?"

"We're not, this, is something much better, I assure you. It's –"

"It's how to become Animagi!" Harry whispered the obvious awe he was feeling clear in his voice. Kestrel practically climbed onto Harry's back to see the book over his shoulder.

Neville could only stare up at his Uncle's in surprise. "I thought you said we had to wait until at least Third Year before you would even consider teaching us this?"

"We did yes, but that was before the Castle apparently interfered with your Sorting, and Harry's scar started reacting to a teachers mere presence."

"We decided, and Frank agreed with us, that it's a good idea for you guys to start learning this now. We'll be able to help you over the summer, but for now, just try and get through that book and maybe brew the potion to see what your forms are."

Sirius looked like he wanted to add something but they could hear Frank and Augusta returning from the Study. "Write if you have any questions or if anything more out of the ordinary pops up." He glanced over his shoulder and timed his farewell just as the elder Longbottom's entered the Parlour. "Have fun at the Burrow, see you in June."

They each said their goodbyes as they took turns going through the green flames, calling out 'The Burrow!' in clear voices.

Harry was the last to arrive and was caught about the shoulders by a tall, thin wizard, with a balding thatch of red hair on his head; kind blue eyes gazed at him from behind horn rimmed glasses. "Easy there young man, that last steps a wallop."

"Thanks. I've never Floo'd well. Harry Potter." He held out his hand, as both Neville and Kestrel had done before him.

"I'm Arthur Weasley. Welcome to the Burrow, Harry." Harry looked around the slightly cramped kitchen, taking in the slanted ceiling, the crooked staircase that led up, up, up in a seemingly endless well of stairs. He could practically sense the love of the family in every piece of the house, and he couldn't help but smile. A glance over at his siblings showed that they to were smiling. They looked at Mr. Weasely still grinning, "It's brilliant!"

"Thank you, I quite like it myself."

Before further pleasantries could be made there was a pounding of footsteps and Ginny came barrelling into the kitchen, slipping a little on the rug at the bottom of the stairs. "You made it!"

"Course we did!"

Ginny laughed happily and ran over to her friends, grabbing each of them by the sleeve of their robes and dragging them towards the stairs. "Come on, I'll show you guys were you're staying. Kes is bunking with me; Nev and Harry, you guys get Bill and Charlie's old room."

Once the three had been shown to their rooms and unloaded themselves of their trunks and possessions they made their way back downstairs, joining everyone else in the sitting room. While usually with this many people the small room would be to cramped, a little spell work on Mr. Weasely's part expanded the room to comfortably hold the large family and their guests.

The entered the den to the sounds of whom they assumed was Mrs. Weasely scolding Fred and George, who both had their heads ducked in apparent remorse, but when Harry and Kestrel peered closer, they could see identical small smiles on the older twins' faces. "There will be no more tricks, pranks, or tomfoolery while we have guests in this house is that understood?"

"Yes mum."

"Completely and totally crystal clear."

As Mrs. Weasley left to go back to the kitchen the Twins reproachful demeanours vanished completely and they walked over to the newest arrivals to the Weasley house. "What have you two done now?" Kestrel questioned as she dropped herself onto an empty two-seat couch, leaning her head back to look at the twins. None of her three friends had a chance to sit next to her as Fred and George hopped neatly over the back of the couch and landed on either side of the young girl, each throwing an arm over her shoulder, squishing her between them. Luckily she was small enough that she wasn't that uncomfortable.

"Well you see, little bird," said George in a conniving sort of whisper, leaning over and pointing over at Hermione. Kestrel and the others had noticed her earlier glaring at George and Fred every so often. "We may or may not have,"

"No proof pointing either way you see." Fred added with a sad nod of his head.

"Right you are Fred. No proof at all, but any way, continuing on. We may or may not have left out a charmed bit of candy, that when ingested gives the ingester abilities similar to a Metamorphmagus."

"Only they can't control it and it's confined to a person's hair, so it's not like she has much to complain about really."

"Yes, it's not like she was changing all over the place that would just be cruel."

"Yeah, she may have gotten stuck looking like Goyle, or that one girl in your year, Parkinson, I think her name is."

"Exactly, see not so bad at all having your hair change colour for a few hours,"

"Or days, the spells kind of finicky."

"Aha! So you admit it!" Hermione pointed an accusatory finger at the twins.

"We did no such thing." They said together, clearly outraged at the insinuation.

"You just admitted to placing that spell on a piece of candy."

"Well yes, but we didn't leave it out with the intention of anyone eating it."

"That was just a bonus really," George whispered to Kestrel, causing the girl to grin, which she quickly hid behind a hand.

"We really had just left it out by accident." Fred admitted, trying to sound as apologetic as possible, while keeping a grin off his face.

"It really wasn't anything personal?" Hermione asked, uncertain.

The twins finally realized what the problem was. "We wouldn't prank you just because you're a Muggle-born Hermione." George assured the bushy haired witch.

"Yeah that's just plain wrong. Besides it could have easily been any other person in the house at the time that could have eaten the candy. You were just the lucky, I mean, poor unsuspecting victim."

Hermione looked between the two of them for a few moments before finally nodding. "All right, as long as it doesn't happen again."

"Absolutely!" Fred agreed, nodding his head vigorously.

"Not a problem, we will not prank, pull practical jokes, on one Hermione Granger while she is a guest at The Burrow."

"That's fine….wait what do you mean 'at The Burrow?'"

The gathered children, excluding Percy who had curled up in a corner chair to read a book, passed the time waiting for midnight by playing a variety of board games, exploding snap, and 'I Spy With My Magic Eye'. Ironically while Neville was a fantastic Seeker, he was the worst player of 'I Spy' in the bunch. When asked why by his friends Neville just laughed and told them, 'Not shiny enough!"

Between setting up various games, Fred and George took to trying to trick Harry and Kestrel into revealing the identities of the Marauders. Their long distance prank war was still on going and the Quaffle was currently in the Pranksters-turned-Aurors pitch.

Kestrel and Harry both threw their arms up to protect their faces as the pile of cards in front of them exploded spectacularly. They lowered their arms and began laughing hysterically at the soot covered faces of the older twins; Fred's hair was blasted back from his face and George was missing half an eyebrow.

"You two look ridiculous!"

"Like you two can talk." Fred and George cried together pointing at the two black haired friends who were just as soot covered as they were, looking very much like reverse pandas, with black faces and white spaces around their eyes. The game quickly degenerated into a card throwing match, seeing which of them could get the most cards inside an old leather boot before they exploded. Harry had the best aim out of the four of them, but Fred and George liked to cheat, so it came out pretty even in the end.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came back into the den 10 minutes before the clock was to chime midnight, levitating a tray bearing nine steaming mugs of Hot Chocolate behind them, as well as several leftover Christmas Crackers and noise makers. A few casual flicks of his wand and Mr. Weasley sent a mug towards each of the children, receiving many grateful thanks-you's in return. While Fred and George distributed the noise makers, Harry and Kestrel cleaned up the cards, shoving them back into their packing so they would cease to explode. Once finished they took their mugs over to where Neville was engrossed in a game of Chess with Ron.

Ginny and Hermione were watching on, occasionally giving Neville hints or suggestions on which pieces to move. Normally Ron would have been upset by this, but Neville had told him at the beginning that he was rubbish at Chess and that having the girls help him might actually give Ron a challenge.

It wasn't long after everyone had found a seat that the clock began to chime midnight and the children began to spin the noise makers and pull crackers, filling the small space with noise, smoke, and laughter.

"Happy New Year!"


	12. Chapter 12

The morning that they were to return to Hogwarts was dull and dreary, the sky a gray cloud filled haze that hurt the eyes to look at. Harry, Neville, Ginny, Kestrel, Hermione and Ron grabbed a compartment together, while Percy went to join the other Prefects, and Fred and George wandered off in search of their best friend, Lee Jordan.

As soon as they were seated and the door to their compartment closed, Ron pulled out some parchment and a quill, along with his Transfiguration text book and started to scribble furiously. Hermione looked at him with a disapproving frown and, though she already knew the answer, asked, "What are you doing, Ron?"

"You guys talking about the Christmas ornaments we did for McGonagall before the holidays reminded me that I forgot to do my essay."

"We've had almost two weeks to do the essay Ron. Why would you leave it to the last minute?"

Ron glared at his parchment as he continued to write, "I hadn't meant to, I had even started it before we left for home. I just got caught up in the excitement of going home and it slipped my mind."

Hermione and Ginny both fixed unbelieving looks on the red head who scowled back at them. "Don't look at me like that, I really did start it. Besides I still have the weekend to get this done. So it'll be fine, I promise." They both shook their heads and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and let him work on his essay in peace.

In the seat across from them, Neville and Kestrel were going over her manual on how to care for her Fire Orchid. Unlike the Muggle version of the plant, this one was actually on fire, and had to be tended to carefully. While Kestrel wasn't the best at Herbology, she had always had a fascination with fire type plants and had become enamoured of the Fire Orchids and the Fire Seed Plants that the Longbottom's had in their Greenhouses, and happily helped Neville to tend them when they were there.

Harry was in the corner seat, his feet pulled up underneath him and Sirius' Marauder Journal open on his lap, a smirk on his face as he read over his 11 year old godfather's notes. He had gotten his dad to charm it before they had left for the Weasely's so that it would look just like an ordinary note book, and not arouse the older twins' suspicions more than they already were. So far they had yet to realize, or guess, that the younger Gryffindors' fathers were indeed their idols, and Harry wanted to keep them guessing for as long as possible.

The trolley witch eventually came by, and they each purchased a few snacks to tide them over until they arrived at Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione both left the compartment not long after the Trolley witch had departed. Hermione had left to use the loo and Ron had gone to ask Percy a few questions about his essay. The twins were less pompous about things than Percy was, but Percy wouldn't make fun of him for asking like they would. Leaving the remaining four friends with a few unexpected moments to discuss any new revelations that they had made over the holidays, with out the others overhearing.

Kestrel pulled out a book from her bag. It was one of the books on Magical Britain, which she had received from Remus; she flipped it open to one of the many tagged pages. It was an old leather bound book that looked like the only thing holding it together was magic and spell-o tape, the title on the cover was faded and barely decipherable.

She quickly skimmed the page and found the section that she had been waiting to show Ginny. She turned the book around and pointed it out to the red head, her own hair turning a bright blue in excitement. "Uncle Remus got me this book for Christmas; it belonged to one of Rowena Ravenclaw's daughters, who had been raised at Hogwarts. Rosetta Ravenclaw was a sort of Building Historian in the time of the founders; she'd documented dozens of other magical buildings all across Britain and the Mainland and this one is all about Hogwarts." She was practically vibrating in her seat she was so excited, Neville and Harry just smile at her since they had gotten used to seeing her like this after she had read the first few pages. Ginny could only nod at her friend's exuberance as she read through the section that had been pointed out to her.

"It explains what each of the Four did to help build Hogwarts, what enchantments they added, why they used quartz granite, in certain parts of the castle and not others, almost everything." She sighed as she took the book back from Ginny after she was finished and tucked it back into her bag for safe keeping. "Unfortunately the book is really old and a lot of the stuff has been scribbled out, like the location to Slytherin's supposed Chamber of Secrets. Which I'm sure with a little effort on our part we could probably find. But that's for next year maybe. But as the passage I just showed you clearly states, each Founder had a Common Room of sorts that was located near, but not in each of the Houses, where students from all four Houses could mingle. I looked through my copy of _Hogwarts: A History_ and found no mention of them anywhere, nor in any of the older copies at Longbottom Manor."

"So their locations have been lost then?"

"Yes, but there are clues throughout the books chapters on each of the four houses, and we should be able to find them."

"I thought, though that the Baron said a place of all four founders would be best?"

"Yes, and there's another section in there that I have tagged, it's really worn through and hard to read, but it mentions a room within the Castle that all four came together to create, that's what we're looking for this term, whenever we get a spare moment." Kestrel voice trailed off towards the end as the door to the compartment rattled.

The door slid open and Hermione walked back in, taking in her quiet friends wearily. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, no worries Hermione, we just thought you might have been someone else." Harry said, picking his own book back up.

"Who else would I have been, besides Ron maybe?"

"The Slytherins. We saw Draco and a few of his ilk giving us strange looks on the platform." Harry explained further, trying to find where exactly he had been in Sirius' journal.

"Well, to be fair that may have been because Tonks and I were having a hair colour changing contest, to see who could change their hair colour the fastest." Kestrel grinned. She and Harry had wandered away from the Weasely family and their friends when they had spotted their Hufflepuff cousin and her Aunt and had gone over to say 'hello'.

"Oh right I had forgotten about that."

Ginny and Hermione laughed, "Who won?"

"Tonks did, but I still say that she cheated."

"Kes, it's your own fault, you got too fancy towards the end, trying to add polka dots and stripes and things."

"Quality over quantity, Potter."

"Not in a contest, Black."

"Whatever, I still get points for creativity." She muttered, crossing her arms and scowling at the floor.

The four of them laughed good naturedly at Kestrel's pout, prompting her to stick her tongue out at all of them, which just made everyone, including her, laugh harder. Which is what Ron walked in on, a look of confusion falling over his face as he slid open the door.

"Did I miss something?"

Hermione wiped a few tears from her eyes and answered, "No, nothing important. Percy help you finish up your essay?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, he did." He tucked the rolled up bit of parchment back into his trunk and sat down. "He corrected a few mistakes I had made in some of my spelling, so I'm going to re-write it over the weekend, which shouldn't take me too long to do hopefully."

The rest of the train ride passed in good natured jokes and laughter and unlike their first train ride to Hogwarts, no interruptions from snooty Slytherins and their troll-like body guards, though Blaise did pop in to say hi for a few moments. The talk wasn't as tense as it could have been as he and Ron had come to a sort of truce and refrained from snarking at one another as they had done previously in the term.

The supper they enjoyed after their arrival back to the school was just as enjoyable as every other before and the students all went to bed, happy, healthy, and full.

The new term was not off to a good start as the whole school had woken up to a blizzard, adding several more feet of snow to the Castles already covered grounds. The blizzard lasted all week, though it stopped snowing on the Wednesday; the winds were so bad that it kept blowing snow everywhere making it impossible to see.

Hagrid, the large Grounds Keeper, could be seen from the windows shovelling paths from the Main Entrance to the Greenhouses, the Quidditch Pitch, and his own hut. Despite his best efforts, however, the roaring winds and heavily falling snow soon made all his hard work moot. Most of the Herbology classes were cancelled until the blizzard abated, though several Hufflepuffs, as well as Neville, went out to the Greenhouses anyway to help Professor Sprout wrap up the plants that could not take such extreme climate changes, or helped to reinforce the warming charms on the glass walls.

Every other class went on as scheduled, even though the Potions classroom, which was located in the dungeons, was so cold that students were wearing the warmest clothes that they owned in layers just to try and keep warm. Kestrel was so bundled up that she could barely see the board on which that class's assignment was written, let alone stir her cauldron. While normally Professor Snape would have been berating and belittling her, and her fellow Gryffindors, the fact that he was almost as bundled up as they were, had left him with very little ground to stand on.

The students were not the only ones glad to get out of the dungeons and up into the warmth filled Great Hall for a much deserved break and some hot food, Snape left all most as fast as they did. The residents of the great Castle were provided, as they had been all week, with several different kinds of hot soups, breads and beverages to help warm them up.

Harry bit into a fresh out the oven bun with a sigh of pleasure, "Wish I could just fill my robes with these, they're lovely and warm." Kestrel was too busy trying to figure out how to eat her steaming bowl of chicken noodle soup, without removing any of her layers, to comment on Harry's odd statement.

Hermione came racing into the Great Hall from the direction of the Main Staircase, her already bushy hair even more frazzled than normal. Ginny looked up from her mug of hot chocolate, gazing at her dorm mate in concern. "Are you all right Hermione?"

"Yes and no. Do you guys know about that great beast on the third floor?" She asked in a harried whisper.

"Yes, but why do you?" Neville looked at her in bewilderment.

Harry and Ginny both grinned at her proudly, but it was Harry who said, "Hermione, have you been sneaking?"

"Not on purpose." She hissed back at him, which only made him grin more. "I came across it in my first few weeks here, when I was wondering about on my own. I got a bit turned around and ended up on the forbidden corridor. I came to the locked door and thought that was the one I needed to get out; needless to say I was wrong. If Hagrid hadn't come along when he did, I would have been a goner."

"Okay, but that was ages ago, why are you only bringing this up now?" Kestrel had finally given up and removed her scarf so that she could both eat and participate in the conversation.

"Because of what I found out. I asked Hagrid why there would be a giant three-headed dog _inside_ a school full of children. And he told me it was between the Headmaster and Nicolas Flamel, then he started muttering about how he shouldn't had said that and that he wouldn't say anything more. He walked me to the Entrance Hall and then left.

"I tried asking him a few times what he had meant but he always told me that it was none of my concern. So when that led to a dead end I went to the library,"

"Naturally," her four friends said together grinning at the girl.

"Do you want me to finish my story or don't you?"

"Sorry."

"Right then…as I was saying, I went to the library and looked up anything I could on Nicolas Flamel. He's not mentioned in any of the books that I've gone through in the library or any of the books in Flourish and Blotts on recent achievements in Wizarding History, or any books on related topics. Then when we got back from holidays I went to the library and got this book out for a bit of light reading." At that she pulled out a large old tome that could have doubled as a tabletop for two easily.

"A bit of light reading, you say? Jeez Hermione, you could club a troll with that thing." Kestrel said, impressed by the sheer size of the book.

The girl just blushed, "Yes well, anyway. I found him."

"Found who?"

Hermione rolled her eyes at her friends and hissed impatiently, "Nicolas Flamel, here listen:

_Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone._

_The ancient study of Alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal._

_There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, and enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight)._

See, the dog must be guarding the Stone for Flamel!"

"That's great in theory Hermione, but why would Flamel hide something like that in school? Wouldn't it be safer at Gringotts?" Neville asked, scratching at his dark hair as he thought.

"Well yes but –"

"The break in!" Kestrel and Harry said together turning in their seats to look at their baffled friends.

"What?"

"Our first week here, we read about a break in at Gringotts that had happened on my Birthday," began Harry as he racked his brain trying to remember the details.

Kestrel snapped her fingers. "Someone had broken in to Gringotts to steal something, but they didn't get anything because the vault had been emptied that same day."

"So maybe, the Stone had been at Gringotts, and Flamel got wind that someone was going to steal it then moved the Stone out of the bank, and…into the School?"

"No, that doesn't make any sense." Kestrel said a disbelieving look on her face. "I mean really, who in the world would be stupid enough to hide something as valuable as that in a School?"

In his large circular office on the Seventh floor, Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, sneezed violently, scattering papers and scraps of parchment off his desk.

Once the blizzard had ended the school and its occupants returned to their usual routines. Kestrel and Ginny, seemed to find it the easiest among their friends to sneak away, and so were left in charge of finding the Founder's secret room. Though they were not having much success, they did manage to map out the remainder of the school. Harry and Neville, occasionally with Ron when Neville was at Quidditch practice, were helping Hermione unravel the mystery of why the Philosopher's Stone was inside Hogwarts, which was going just as slowly as the hunt for the Founder's room.

It wasn't until one day in March, when Neville was racing back from a gruelling and mud filled Quidditch practice, that they had a significant break through on the Philosopher's Stone mystery. Once he was sure that their conversation wouldn't be over heard, he explained what he had heard Professors Snape and Quirrel talking about in hushed whispers out by the Pitch's broom shed.

"So who do you think is after it, Quirrel or Snape?" Harry asked once Neville had finished his story.

"Well from the sounds of it, they may both be after it, but working for different parties. I mean it was Snape who asked if Quirrel had figured out how to get by it yet or not."

"True. I'd ask why either of them would want the stone, but that's sort of a dumb question, isn't it?"

"A bit yeah. Where are the girls? It's Kes and Hermione that have the minds for puzzles, not us."

"Hermione's in the library again and Kes is with Ginny, trying to wheedle the Marauder's Map out of the twins for a few minutes to see if the Founder's secret room is on there."

"Think they'll have any luck with that?"

"Don't know, they may try to barter with them for the knowledge of who the Marauder's are with letting them see the map. Ginny and Kestrel are smart though, and sneaky, if anyone can convince the twins it'll be those two."

"Which two can do what?" Ron asked as he entered the Gryffindor Common Room, having just left the First Year Boys dormitory, his Transfiguration text and essay under one arm, and the last of his Christmas chocolate in his opposite hand.

"Your sister and ours are trying to get some information out of the older twins." Harry explained, penning a few more sentences onto his own essay for charms.

Ron snorted inelegantly. "Good luck with that, Fred and George horde information like goblin's horde treasure." He sat down at the table the other two boys were sitting at, next to one of the west facing windows, looking out across the grounds towards the Pitch.

He set his chocolate in the middle of the table before setting up the things he would need to finish off his essay, telling the other two to help themselves to whatever they would like.

Harry reached for a Chocolate Frog, he unwrapped it as he read through his essay, looking for any mistakes or facts he may have missed. He glanced at which Famous Wizard card he got, absently reading the facts as he rolled his parchment up to read his conclusion, an nearly choked on a bit of chocolate as the words he was reading registered.

"Neville, Ron, I think I found the last piece of the puzzle we've been looking for." Harry turned the card in his hand around so that the other two could see what he was seeing. There grinning mysteriously at them from the confines of the card was Albus Dumbledore. As they stared at the card in confusion Harry read the information on the back of the card aloud to them.

"_Albus Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the 12 uses of dragon's blood, __**and his work on alchemy with his partner Nicolas Flamel**_."

"That's it, that's why the stone is here. Flamel trusts Dumbledore, so the only logical place for him to hide it would be where Dumbledore is." Neville took the card from Harry and turned it over in his hands as he thought. "What did Uncle James say when you wrote him about Snape and Quirrel arguing about the Stone?"

"Apparently he talked to Dumbledore, and he has his own suspicions about who might be after the stone, but says that we don't need to worry, the stone is very well protected." Harry rolled his eyes and finished off his Chocolate Frog, ripping off a twitching leg in annoyance.

"Maybe he's right, I mean do you know how to get passed a giant three-headed demon dog? Because I looked it up and couldn't find it in any book about magical creatures anywhere." Neville said reasonably standing up and swinging his Nimbus up onto his shoulder.

"I suppose you're right, we do have more important things to worry about anyway."

"Like just what exactly Snape has planned for next Friday's potion lesson?" Ron asked as he absentmindedly sucked on a sugar quill, while his actual quill scratched away at his parchment.

"Yes, exactly like that." Harry said as he and Neville shuddered in unison. When James and Sirius had paid Dumbledore a visit, Sirius had taken it upon himself to visit his former classmate, and recreate a prank from his youth, and stick all of the furniture and various knick knacks in Snape's office to the ceiling. Now having no Sirius or James to take his frustrations out on, and even though he knows that the two first years were incapable of such magic, he had taken to meting out his petty revenge on their children. "Great, now that I know what we have that to look forward to, I'm no longer hungry."

Right they were to worry about Snape's vendetta, for between the two of them Kestrel and Harry managed to loose nearly 30 points for ridiculous things such as chopping their ingredients to roughly, or having too messy of a work station. While this seemed to amuse the Slytherin's a great deal it only ostracized the two First Years from the rest of their house, even though they tried to defend themselves explaining that Snape was being more unfair than usual.

So instead of suffering under the baleful stares of their house mates they had taken to hiding in the library, much to the annoyance of Ron and the delight of Hermione.

It was during one of these periods of "hiding" that they discovered the grounds keeper's secret. While they were studying for their rapidly approaching finals (As Hermione had reminded them a week ago, "There ten weeks away, we should have started studying ages ago!") the noticed the giant form of Hagrid skulking around in the Magical Creature section, trying to keep his lumbering physique from being noticed.

It was Hermione who noticed the large man first, "Hello Hagrid, what are you doing in the library?"

Hagrid started violently and hide something behind his back as he turned to face group of First Years. "Jus' lookin' is all." He said his voice taking on the tone of someone trying to hide something. Harry and his siblings would know, they used that tone often enough with their parents. "What're you lot up ter then?" He turned a stern gaze on Hermione, "Yer still not lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel are yeh?"

"Oh we found out who he was ages ago," Said Hermione as she turned a page in her history text.

Ron nodded his agreement, looking up from his charms book to look at the now worried grounds keeper. "Yeah, that's old news; we also know that that giant three headed dog is guarding the Philosopher's St –"

"SHHH!" Hagrid looked around horrified, but relaxed slightly when he saw that no one else had been around to hear Ron. "What's the matter with yeh? That's not summat you jus' go shoutin' about."

"I actually had a few questions that I wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact," Said Hermione pulling out a fresh sheet of parchment and quill. "About what else may be guarding the Stone, besides the dog?"

Hagrid shushed them again waving his hands at them. "Listen – come by me hut later, after supper. I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anything, mind, bit don' go chatterin' about it in here, students aren't s'pposed ter know. They'll think I told yeh –"

"Right, we'll see you later then Hagrid." Hermione assured him and Hagrid made a hasty retreat from the library, after hastily shoving something back onto the shelf.

"Wonder what he was hiding behind his back?" Ginny said, tilting her head and trying to read the titles from her seat. Hermione's curiosity got the best of her and she left her seat walking over to where Hagrid had been. She returned quickly with a worried look on her face. "Dragons!" She hissed, waving the book in her hand at her friends. "He was looking up stuff on Dragons. _Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland_; _From Inferno to Egg, A Dragon Keeper's Guide._ Why would Hagrid be trying to hide looking at these books?"

Kestrel shrugged and with a sarcastic smirk said, "Maybe he's secretly trying to hatch a Dragon egg?"

"I hope for his sake he isn't." Said Neville.

"Why not?" Hermione asked.

"I keep forgetting sometimes that you're Muggle-born. It's against our laws." Neville explained. "Dragon breeding anywhere, but on registered preserves, was outlawed by the Warlocks Convention of 1709."

Ron nodded his agreement, "Yeah it's hard to stop the Muggles noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back gardens – besides dragons can't be tamed, it's dangerous. You should see some of the burns my brother Charlie got off wild ones in Romania."

"But there aren't dragons in Britain?" Hermione said, shocked.

Harry grinned at the bushy haired witch. "Sure there are. There's the Common Welsh Green and the Herbidean Blacks. Ministry has a hard time keeping them under wraps. Our lot has to keep memory charming the Muggles who see them, so word doesn't get out."

"There are all kinds of fines and probably jail time for those who get caught breeding dragons illegally." Neville stated in a very mater of fact tone.

"Oh, I do hope Hagrid hasn't done something stupid."

Harry, Neville, Kestrel, and Ginny returned to Gryffindor Tower after supper to try and work more on their own personal mystery while Ron and Hermione went down to Hagrid's hut to have their questions answered and to find out what the giant man was up to.

"So the Twins still being tight fisted over the Map?" Harry asked, pouring through Kestrel's copy of _Hogwarts: A History_.

Ginny nodded an annoyed look on her face. "Yeah, they won't even let me have a look at it, and I'm family! The stupid prats. Like I'd try and steal it from them." Ginny was clearly a little hurt by her older brother's refusal to let her look at their Map. "I even offered to not leave their presence with it, but they still said no."

Kestrel had a slightly guilty look on her face that mirrored the ones on Harry and Neville's, as she read through Rosetta Ravenclaw's book about Hogwarts. "Maybe I shouldn't have come with you to ask the twins, they looked right at me when they refused. They probably want us to offer up the Marauder's identities in exchange for letting us look."

"I don't blame you, Kes, Fred and George can be gits sometimes. This is just one of the many examples of that. Besides even if you hadn't had come, they probably would have done the exact same thing."

"It's probably not on the Map anyway, when I asked dad about it over the holidays he couldn't think of any such room." Harry said as he turned a page.

They sat in silence for a few moments, each reading from a book, jotting down places they hadn't checked out yet, or places they should check more thoroughly.

Ginny sat up suddenly and grabbed a quill and a blank roll of parchment and began to scribble furiously. Her three friends looked up from their own work to watch the red head write at a speed that matched Hermione during a pop quiz.

"Whatcha doing Gin?" Harry asked warily.

"I just realized that I have more than the three older brothers at Hogwarts."

"Yes, as I recall you said you had 6 brothers, two of which have already graduated."

Ginny nodded as she continued to write. "Right, Bill and Charlie. They weren't quite as prolific as Fred and George when it came to pranking, but they did get around a bit. Bill, he's the oldest brother, had decided pretty early on that he wanted to be a Curse Breaker, so I know he explored a bunch of the school. He may know of the room we're looking for."

"That's brilliant Ginny!" Harry said looking up from his book to send a grin to the red head, who grinned back without looking up from her letter writing.

As Ginny was finishing up her letter, Hermione and Ron burst into the Common Room both with frenzied looks on their faces.

Before they even had a chance to ask what the matter was they both burst into chatter trying to talk over one another in there rush to explain their eventful evening.

Neville slammed one of the heavy history books down onto their table silencing everyone. "One at a time, we can't understand either if you. Hermione, you go first."

"We found out that a bunch of the Professors have also set enchantments to guard the Stone; McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Quirrel, Snape, and Dumbledore as well. We also mentioned our theory of either Quirrel or Snape, or both wanting to steal the stone. He told us that were mental and that none of the teachers would try to steal it. He was pretty adamant about that so we dropped it. But either way, they at least know how to get by their own part in the protections."

"Okay, that's a little less worrying now that we know it's not just that great beast guarding the stone." Harry said and the others nodded their agreement.

"Fluffy."

"What?"

"The dog's name," said Hermione. "Its name is Fluffy."

"Who would name a creature like that Fluffy?" Kestrel asked a disgusted look on her face.

"Hagrid." The others intoned together, and really that was all the answer anyone needed.

"Now, what else had you two in such a tizzy?" said Ginny.

Ron took a deep breath and, as if he was still having a hard time believe it himself, said, "Hagrid has a dragon egg. He has a dragon egg sitting in a cauldron over a fire; he's trying to hatch the bloody thing." They could only stare in stunned silence for several minutes, each contemplating the repercussions that may happen because of this.

It was Kestrel who broke the slightly uncomfortable silence by voicing the only problem that she could see in this whole thing. "Doesn't Hagrid live in a wooden hut?"


	13. Chapter 13

A few more letters were written that night before the six of them decided to turn in. Ron and Ginny wrote a letter Charlie asking if he could take the Dragon, and Kestrel wrote a letter to her dad asking if he could help with the situation at all. Kestrel received a reply back the next morning at breakfast, having to once again save her plate from Barnabas. "I really dislike your owl, Nev."

"I know, I'm sorry. I really have no idea why he does that."

She opened the letter after tossing the owl a piece of bacon. She scanned the contents before shoving the letter into her bag. "Dad says he and Uncle Frank are going to come down and have a discreet word with Hagrid about the Dragon, and see if they can't convince him to let people who are better equipped to care for it, look after it. So Ginny, Ron, when you hear back from Charlie send my dad or Nev's dad a letter." The two red-heads nodded and they joined the other First Year Gryffindors in heading towards the Greenhouses.

Since finals were coming up the teachers seemed to be piling up the lessons that they wanted them all to learn. They almost had more homework than they could keep up with. The Professors either wanted essays, or diagrams, or in depth analysis (as in depth as first years could get) on whichever spell they had just learnt. All the homework they were getting seriously cut into the personal research that the four were trying to do. On top of everything else, Bill's letter had come back with the unfortunate news that he had no idea of any such room at Hogwarts, so that was yet another disappointing dead end.

During breakfast on the following Wednesday Ron and Hermione received a letter from Hagrid with only two words written in a messy scrawl of letters '_It's hatching._' Ron and Hermione looked panicked for a moment, then surprised as Kestrel grabbed her bag and bolted up from the table, running out of the Great Hall as if she was being chased by Fluffy once again. The remaining five agreed after much arguing to go down to Hagrid's hut after Herbology during their morning break.

When Professor Sprout asked where Kestrel was, Harry quickly thought up a lie and told the kindly Head of Hufflepuff that Kestrel hadn't been feeling well and had gone to the Hospital Wing.

So when Kestrel ran into the Greenhouse halfway through the lesson, red in the face and breathing rather hard. Professor Sprout asked if she was sure she was feeling well enough to continue with class. "Yes Professor, Madame Pomfrey gave me a draught and said I should be right as rain by the end of the day."

"Very well, dear, but take it easy if you feel sick."

"Yes Professor." Kestrel thanked her and quickly joined in with Ginny and Hermione in drawing a Fluxweed plant.

Once class was over they hurried down to Hagrid's and Kestrel explained that she had run off to send a letter to Sirius and Frank letting them know that the Dragon was hatching earlier than anticipated. They knocked at Hagrid's door and after confirming who it was hurried them inside, hastily closing the door behind them.

"It's nearly out, now. You've come just in time."

The six stared in fascination at the black egg that rested on the top of Hagrid's large wooden table. The egg had deep cracks running through it, they could hear the creature moving about inside and soft clicks emanating from the egg. Then all at once the egg seemed to fall apart and there was a baby dragon, the size of a large housecat, on table. It black leathery wings all shrivelled up against its long sinewy black body. Its eyes were bright orange; it had stubby little horns near the top of its head, and wide flaring nostrils. The baby sneezed and a small puff of flame shot out its mouth, making Ron and Neville shove back from the table.

Hagrid sniffled, tears in his eyes, as he reached out to pat the tiny dragon on the head. It just whipped its head around and snapped at the man's large fingers. "Oh look, bless him, he knows his mummy."

Kestrel and Harry stared up at the man, identical looks of amused horror on their faces, while the others could only shake their heads in resignation.

"Hagrid, how fast do Norwegian Ridgebacks grow exactly?" Neville asked, still keeping a safe distance from the table.

As Hagrid was about to answer his face went white behind his black beard, and he hurried over to the window and peered out of the curtains.

"What's the matter, Hagrid?" Harry asked drawing his wand and holding it down by his leg.

"Someone was looking through the gap in the curtains – it's a kid – he's running back up to the school."

Neville and Ginny leaped up and gazed out the window, recognizing the figure of the student running away, even though he was already so far off. There was no mistaking that shock of blonde hair. Malfoy.

"Don't worry Hagrid, I sent a letter off to my Dad and Uncle Frank, they'll take care of the Dragon long before Malfoy manages to tell anyone about it." Kestrel reassured him reaching up and patting his elbow, which was about as high as she could reach.

By lunch that day Kestrel had received a reply back from her father, who assured her that the dragon situation was under control, taking a load off of the six First Year's minds. Despite the assurances that everything was being taken care of, the smug looks that Malfoy was sending them for the next few days still managed to set them on edge. During the breaks between classes, during lunch, and after supper, one of two of them would go down to Hagrid's hut and help out with the Ridgeback, which he had decided to call Norbert.

It was Neville and Kestrel's turn that Wednesday night, so after they had finished eating they gathered up their things and made the trek down to Hagrid's dilapidated wooden hut. They knocked and Hagrid called out for them to wait a moment. It was not Hagrid who answered the door, but Frank Longbottom instead.

"Dad!"

"Uncle Frank!"

"Hey you two, in you get, quick now." He held open the door enough for them to slip by him. Dark eyes scanning the area around Hagrid's hut, making sure the kids had not been followed. Frank closed the door and ruffled Neville's hair and smiled at Sirius giving Kestrel a noogie.

"When did you get here dad?" Neville asked setting his bag next to the door and looking up at the dark haired, dark eyed man standing next to him.

"Not that long ago, a little bit before dinner started."

"Yeah, we wanted to get in and out without anyone noticing our presence." Sirius explained as he straightened up from tormenting his daughter. "We're just waiting on Charlie Weasely and a few of his mates to arrive, and then we'll get down to business of transporting little Norbert here to Romania." He bowed toward the baby dragon with a flourish and was rewarded with a tiny jet of flame being blown at him, catching his robes on fire. He scowled at the creature irritably and put the fire out with a spout of water from his wand.

While the three adults talked about the logistics of the move, Neville and Kestrel continued with what they had come down here to do. Neville grabbed the dead, plucked and chopped up chickens, which were soaking in a bucket of brandy, and proceeded with feeding the baby dragon while Kestrel cleaned out the metal crate that Hagrid was keeping it in.

Kestrel finished her task quickly with a few well aimed _Scourgify's_ and joined Neville in feeding Norbert. Once that was done Kestrel pulled out the sketch she had begun of the baby dragon the other day, along with a pencil and continued with her sketching.

Sirius eventually wandered over, growing bored with the discussion that Frank and Hagrid were having. He peered over his daughter's shoulder admiring her drawing. "I haven't seen you sketch for awhile now Kes luv. When did you pick it up again?"

Kestrel gave him a somewhat melancholy smile over her shoulder and the Auror winced. "I still don't draw much, not unless I have too for a class. I'm drawing Norbert here, because the boys, and Ginny and I are planning on creating a duplicate to use to scare the pants off of the Slytherins..." She paused in thought for a moment, tapping her pencil to her lips, a brighter smile forming on her face. "And probably the rest of the school come to think of it. If it works out the way we want it to."

"Nice. If it works send us a memory, I'm sure James and Remus would love to see it."

"If it works you will definitely be getting a memory in the post."

Sirius' next words were interrupted by another knock at Hagrid's door. Sirius was closest and so went to see who it was, giving Kestrel's shoulder a squeeze as he turned towards the door. He opened the door a crack, just enough to see through, and grinned at whoever it was he saw outside.

"You must be Charlie. Come on in." He stood back and a young man stepped into the swelteringly hot hut. He was of the same build as the older Weasely twins and Ginny, short and stocky rather than thin and tall. His hair was as bright a red as any of his siblings and he seemed to have more freckles than he knew what to do with.

"Yeah, and you'd be Sirius Black then. Hiya Hagrid."

"Charlie, thanks fer comin'." The large man shook Charlie's hand, making the second oldest Weasely seem much smaller than he really was.

"It's not a problem. The Preserve has been looking for a Ridgeback for quite awhile. You not only saved us a lot of trouble, but a lot of gold as well." Charlie shrugged indifferently before an excited look came over his face. "So where is it?"

An hour before curfew found Neville and Kestrel walking back up to the castle, a clear night sky above them, promising an excellent view of the heavens for Astronomy class that night. They had barely made it a few feet into the castle when they were both grabbed and pulled roughly into an empty room just off of the Main Entrance. They didn't even have a chance to pull their own wands before they had three wands inches away from their faces.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Two ickle Gryffie's out all by their lonesome. Sneaking ickle Gryffies by the looks of things. Wouldn't you say Crabbe? Goyle?"

Neville rolled his eyes and straightened his back, leaning against the wall he had been shoved into more firmly. "Your attempts at being intimidating leave a heck of a lot to be desired Malfoy."

"Besides we're not sneaking if it's still before curfew, you muppet."

"You better watch that cheek of yours Black, or –"

"Or what Malfoy? What are you going to do?"

"To you, Black, nothing, but to that oaf living in the shack? It would be a shame if, say for instance, an anonymous tip were to reach the Department for Control of Magical Creatures, that the Hogwarts Groundskeeper has an illegal Dragon egg." His smirk widened as Neville and Kestrel's eyes narrowed at him further than they already were. "I hear he's already in trouble with the Ministry for something that happened when he was in school. It would be such a _shame_ if he were to receive another black mark on his already spotty record."

"You're nothing but scum Malfoy, making up lies about nice people like Hagrid." Kestrel snapped, taking a daring step forward, Malfoy's wand digging into her sternum. "I'd heard the Malfoy name had fallen in the past few years, what with your father's own black marks on his record, or would that be Dark Mark?"

Draco's naturally pale complexion went sallow in a matter of seconds and he pressed the tip of his wand harder into Kestrel's chest, forcing her back against the wall, getting right up into her personal space, his face right next to hers. Crabbe and Goyle kept Neville in place with their own wands. "Be careful who you insult Kestrel, the right words in the right ears and your father could be sacked, and then whose family name would be disgraced."

"I'd still rather be a Black than a Malfoy any day of the week, Draco. Now," Draco took several steps hastily backwards when Kestrel's own wand, having been stealthily slipped from its holster on her wrist, tapped him on the leg. "Neville and I are going to leave, we're going to pretend we never had this conversation, and we're all going to continue on as we have been. Is that clear?

"Or do I have to get creative with my hexes? Ginny taught me her Bat Bogey Hex and I've been dying to try it out on someone." She raised one elegant black brow dangerously and twitched her wand in Crabbe and Goyle's direction.

The two hulking Slytherins, having seen the affect of the only female Weasely's favourite hex, backed up quickly and pointed their wands away from Neville. Neville drew his own wand, ready if one of them decided to change their minds.

"Smart lads. Now I'd like to be able to say that this has been fun, but we both know that that would be a lie. So tootles." Kestrel kept her wand trained on them while Neville opened the door. He looked out making sure the coast was clear, and then waved Kestrel through, keeping his wand trained on the three Slytherins the entire time. Once they were out of the room, they slid their wands back into their holsters and sprinted up to Gryffindor Tower, managing to make it back without running into any more problems.

They told the others that the Dragon would be leaving tonight, and they wouldn't have to worry about it any further. Neville decided that it would be prudent to write a letter to Hagrid, telling him to get rid of any evidence that Norbert had ever made his hut home. Just in case.


	14. Chapter 14

Thoughts of Dragons, Founders rooms, and Philosopher Stone thieves were driven from their minds as finals approached faster than a Bludger hit by one of the twins. Hermione panicked the closer exams crept, her hair getting frizzier and frizzier with each passing day. In her panic she had not only created a revision table for herself, but one for each of her friends as well, which they all accepted with grace and thanks, even Ron (after threats of bodily harm from Ginny). Thoughts and notes flowed freely between the six friends and any other First Years if they asked. Essays were written and rewritten, spells practised, and notes hastily scrawled in empty margins as hints of brilliance or something to study later came to mind.

Written exams were written according to years in the Great Hall and each student was given quills with several anti-cheating jinxes on them to prevent them from copying another student's paper. When exam time came to Hogwarts, summer was in full swing, making the Castle blisteringly hot. The heat made it hard to concentrate on what they were writing, and it certainly did not help when it came time for the practical portion of their exams, especially potions, with Professor Snape practically breathing down the back of their necks. It was really all Harry and Kestrel could do not to ask if the man would like a breath mint. Neville, in a stroke of brilliance had gotten Tonks to help him charm a pair of earplugs to be invisible when worn, and he managed to brew his best potion yet.

For Harry though the worst exam by far was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Each student was called in individually to the Defence classroom and administered the practical portion of their exam. The minute Harry was alone with the stumbling Professor his scar began to pulse with pain, and he could swear that he could feel a wet trickle of blood slowly dripping down his forehead. Every time he went to wipe it away there was nothing.

Harry ran through the drill on the board as quickly as he could without making too many mistakes, and as soon as Quirrel dismissed him he fled from the room. After that Harry's scar ached constantly, throbbing in time with his heartbeat.

Once exams were finally over the first years happily threw their revision notes into their trunk and would have been more than happy to never look at them again. Hermione was talking with Padma Patil of Ravenclaw, Parvati's twin sister, about their exams in the courtyard, and Ron was with the older twins and their friend Lee Jordan, tickling the tentacles of the Giant Squid as it sunned itself on the shore of the Black Lake.

Harry, Neville, Ginny, and Kestrel were sitting beneath the shade of a large willow tree eating a bunch of sweets that they had had the twins purchase for them on their last foray into Hogsmeade, as they relaxed after their final exam, History of Magic. It was at this point that Harry told them about his scar hurting. They knew that it had been bothering him, but not to what extent.

"Why didn't you say something sooner, Harry?" Ginny asked as she watched Harry dodge the handfuls of Every Flavour Beans that Kestrel and Neville tossed at him.

"I didn't want you guys worrying about me on top of your exams. Besides I kind of thought that it would just go away, or it was just because I was so worried about the exams."

"And now that the exams are over and it still hurts? What are your thoughts on your scar now, Potter?"

"I think I'm going to write to dad and then I'm going to go to the Hospital Wing and ask Madam Pomfrey for a headache potion. Do one of you have any spare parchment on you?"

It was while Harry was penning his letter to his father that a thought occurred to Ginny and she sat bolt upright, dislodging Kestrel who had been using her shoulder as a pillow. "Guys, I just thought of something. Why would someone be randomly wandering around Hogsmeade with a dragon egg in their pocket?"

"You got a point Ginny. So you think that someone specifically targeted Hagrid, knowing how much he wanted a dragon in the hope of getting him in trouble?" Harry asked as he scribbled on the parchment that Neville had given him.

"That seems a bit far fetched." Kestrel had pushed herself back up off the ground, pulling bits of grass out of her hair. She twirled a blade and changed her hair to match the colour, making it short and spiky.

"Maybe not to get Hagrid in trouble, but Hagrid, bless his giant heart, loves dangerous creatures. So…maybe they used the dragon as a way to get Hagrid to talk about the other creatures he's taken care of." Ginny shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "I'm not trying to blame Hagrid for anything, but I bet if Fluffy came up, he would brag about how he raised it, including how to get it to calm down. Don't you think?"

"I think you might be on to something, Ginny. Dad trusts Hagrid, but even he'd admit that Hagrid is a bit too trusting of people's intentions." Harry added a few more lines to his letter to his father, iterating his suspicions about someone going after the stone soon, before rolling it up and pushing himself to his feet. He had barely taken ten steps towards the school when the sound of wing beats reached his ears. He looked up and smiled when he saw his snowy owl, Hedwig, making her way over to him, lazily gliding down to land on his shoulder.

"You're such a smart owl, Hedwig. Can you take this letter to dad as fast as you can? It's really important that he get this." The regal white owl hooted softly and stuck out her leg for Harry to attach the letter to. "Thanks girl." He scratched the back of her neck a few times before holding his arm out for her to take off from. She nipped his ear affectionately and then with a few mighty flaps from her wings, took off into the bright Scottish afternoon sky.

"What should we do about the Stone in the mean time?" Neville asked, leaning back on his hands and tilting his head backwards to look up at Harry.

Kestrel, who had dropped back onto the grass and was trying to see if she could get her skin tone to match the exact shades of the grass, grinned and said, "Well we could be responsible children for once and go tell a Professor our suspicions about either Snape or Quirrel, or both, trying to steal the stone."

"That's actually not a bad idea." Mused Harry and he set off again towards the Castle.

Kestrel jumped up making an indignant noise, her hair and skin reverting back to their original colours in her surprise. "I was kidding Harry; you know how I feel about being responsible. I break out in a rash. Harry!"

The three that were still on the grass scrambled to their feet and hurried to catch up with Harry, who was taking long strides, trying to get to the Castle as quickly as possible without actually running. "Well what do you actually expect us to do Kestrel? Protect the Stone ourselves? Yes, because four first years have a chance against Voldemort."

"Whoa, wait a second since when is Voldemort after the Stone; I thought it was Quirrel and Snape?" Ginny demanded, looking between an equally confused Neville and Kestrel.

Harry tapped the scar on his forehead with his thumb. "I got this bloody thing from Voldemort, I may not know much about it, but I'm almost positive that the only thing it would react to would be old Moldy what's his name. So it may be Snape and Quirrel that are going to steal it, but it's Voldemort that wants it." They reached the Main Entrance and started to head up towards the Seventh floor, but ran into Professor McGonagall before they even made it to the staircases.

"And just where do you four think you're going in such a hurry?" She gazed at them over her square spectacles, dark eyes stern.

"We need to talk to Professor Dumbledore. It's important." Explained Harry bravely, meeting her gaze without flinching. Gran Longbottom was scarier when she was on a tear.

"Talk to Professor Dumbledore," she repeated slightly bewildered. "Whatever for?"

Harry opened his mouth for a moment but closed it right away. How was he going to explain this one, they weren't supposed to know about the Stone.

It was Neville who spoke up and they all immediately wished that he hadn't, "It's a secret, Professor." He flinched back and fought the urge to hide behind Kestrel when McGonagall's mouth thinned and her nostrils flared dangerously.

"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago for the Ministry. He received an urgent owl from the Minister of Magic, and he flew off immediately.

"He's gone!"

"Now?"

"The Headmaster is a very great and powerful Wizard, Mr. Potter, Ms. Black. I suggest you find something else to occupy your time."

"But this is important." Harry tried again, his friends nodding along behind him.

"What ever it is you have to say cannot be more important than the Minister of Magic." McGonagall started to turn to head up the staircases, assuming that the students would do as they were told.

Harry took a fortifying breath and dove right in. "Look, Professor, it's about the Philosopher's Stone."

The stern professor had not been expecting that and she dropped the books and scrolls she had been carrying in surprise, not bothering to pick them up. Instead she just stared at the four First Years in astonishment.

"How do you know –"

"That doesn't matter right now. We think – no we know – that someone is going to try and steal it. And if Dumbledore is out of the Castle, I'll bet you Galleons that they're going to go after it tonight."

"So you see, we **really** need to speak with the Headmaster." Ginny added sweetly.

McGonagall eyed them with a mixture of suspicion and surprise. "Professor Dumbledore will be back by tomorrow morning. You have nothing to worry about the Stone is very well protected."

"But Professor –"

"No. I know what I'm talking about; I'm one of the professors who helped protect the Stone." She floated her scattered things back up into her arms. "Now I suggest that you all go back outside and enjoy the weather." She walked off ignoring the four children's protests.

Harry glanced back at his friends once McGonagall was out of sight. "It's definitely going to happen tonight. Dad should be getting the letter soon, so he'll be aware, I'll send him another letter as soon as we get to the tower, and hopefully get here in time."

"What do we do in the mean time then? There's no telling when Uncle James will get here." Neville pointed out reasonably.

Harry was about to start talking again but the sudden looks of alarm crossing his friends face made him turn around instead, his mouth snapping shut with a click. Standing behind them was Snape.

"Good afternoon."

The four Gryffindors could only stare at him.

"You shouldn't be inside on a day like today." He continued and odd smile forming on his face, like he wasn't used to making the gesture.

"You're absolutely right Professor," Ginny said cheerily, grabbing a hold of the sleeve of Harry's robes, while Neville grabbed Kestrel's. "We were just heading back outside. Have a good afternoon Professor Snape." Ginny waved over her shoulder at the now slightly confused man, as she and Neville dragged the other two back outside, towards the courtyard and out of Snape's line of sight.

Once they were certain that the bat-like professor had moved on they hurried to a different part of the castle and made their way towards Gryffindor tower. "So what do we do about Snape and Quirrel?"

"We could follow them?" Neville suggested with a shrug. It wasn't the greatest plan, but then planning wasn't really his thing.

"Nah, that's too obvious." Kestrel said, shaking her head.

"We need the Map." Harry said. "But ours isn't even close to being done yet, Kes and I are still having trouble translating Remus' chicken scratch when it comes to how the runes are supposed to work."

"We'll have to ask the Twins. If we explain the situation they should agree to let us borrow it." Ginny said.

"Okay, you and Kestrel go and talk to the twins, Neville and I will meet you back in the Tower. I need to get something out of my trunk, and write another letter to dad." All four nodded and quickly went their separate ways, Harry and Neville headed up to the seventh floor, and Kestrel and Ginny headed back outside and down to the lake where they had last seen the twins.

The two girls were relieved to see that they were exactly where they had left them, playing with the Giant Squid. Though instead of tickling the creature's tentacles they were now playing catch with it.

"Fred, George!" The elder twins turned at the sound of their sister's yell and excused themselves from Lee and Ron, who continued their game with the Squid.

"What's up Ginny?" Said Fred.

"You look like mum caught you sneaking out of the house to fly again." Said George.

Ginny ignored the jibe and quickly asked, "Can we borrow the Map?"

"Haven't we already had this conversation with you two already?"

"I do believe you're right George, we've definitely already had this conversation."

"This is different." Ginny insisted, glaring up heatedly at her older brothers, brown eyes flashing dangerously. "This is an emergency."

Seeing the distressed look on the younger girls' faces they dropped their usual playful attitudes. "What's wrong?"

"We found out what that giant dog is doing on the Third Floor." Kestrel hurried to explain, knowing that every second they spent talking was a second wasted. "It's guarding the Philosopher's Stone, and either Snape, or Quirrel, or both have been out to steal it all year. But they're going to try for it tonight, because Dumbledore has left the School for London." She took a quick breath, holding up her hand when it looked like they were going to interrupt her. "We need the Map to keep an eye on them as actually following them would be too hard and obvious, and we don't want to tip them off that we know they're after it."

The two Third Years stared at them for a few minutes in silent contemplation before George asked, "You two are sure about this? Snape and _Quirrel_ are after the Stone?"

"Yes." Ginny insisted. "We know that the Quirrel bit is hard to believe, but they are **both** after it. We need to keep an eye on them until Harry's dad can get here."

The twins held a quick silent conversation involving much eyebrow raising, and shoulder shrugs. Fred finally nodded and George looked at the two girls. "Alright you can use it. It's in my trunk, inside my potions text." He turned his gaze to Kestrel then, "I assume you know how to activate it."

"I do, yes. Thank you. We owe you guys one!" Kestrel thanked them as Ginny hurriedly pulled her after her towards the school, full on sprinting now. They managed to avoid meeting any teachers or other students as they ran pell-mell through the halls, taking a short cut from the fourth floor to the seventh when they saw Peeves the Poltergeist up ahead setting up a trap for any passing students. Ginny called out the password, Periwinkle, before they even reached the portrait and they dove in as it swung open.

Kestrel joined Harry and Neville, while Ginny flew up the boy's stairs and up to the Third Year Boy's dormitory. She returned a few moments later and handed a folded piece of parchment over to Kestrel, who had her wand out and ready.

She quickly looked around making sure that they were still the only ones in the common room, then tapped the parchment with her wand and said, "_I solemnly swear that I am up to no good._" Ink started to spread across the paper, forming words and images. Ginny watched in amazement as the ink coalesced at the top of the folded paper to for the words:

'Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers

are proud to present

THE MARAUDER'S MAP

"That is the most brilliant thing I have ever seen." Ginny breathed quietly in amazement as she continued to watch the ink form the walls of Hogwarts and the grounds, marking out every entrance into and out of the School, as well as listing all its inhabitants.

"Just wait until ours is done, it'll be even better."

"We can pat ourselves on the back later; right now we need to find Snape and Quirrel." Harry's green eyes roved over the Map intently searching for the two names as quickly as possible.

"There." Neville said, stabbing a finger onto the Map. "Snape's in the Staff Room."

"Quirrel is in his office." Ginny said a few seconds later, having located their second target.

"Right, here's what we're going to do." Harry said, pulling two objects out of his bag.

Kestrel's eyes widened. "Are those what I think they are?"

"Two way mirrors? Yes. I had Tonks get me a pair at the first Hogsmeade weekend after the Holidays. I have two more, but I haven't keyed the last one yet, so we're just going to use these two." He handed Kestrel and Ginny one and tucked the other into the pocket of his robe.

"Nev and I are going to go down and camp outside the third floor corridor; you two are going to let us know which one of the professors heads are way."

"Wait a minute, why are Gin and I being benched for this one?"

"It's nothing personal Kes." Harry quickly assured her, raising a hand when it still looked like she was going to hex him. "You and Ginny are better at thinking on your feet and reacting quickly. I need you two on that Map."

The Black and Potter heirs stared at each other for a few moments before Kestrel finally let out an annoyed sigh. "Fine, but for the record I don't like this. Not one bit."

"Noted."

"How are we going to stay out of sight though Harry? There aren't exactly a lot of places to hide outside that corridor."

Harry reached once more into his bag and pulled out a cloak made out of a shimmering silver material that flowed like water. Ginny stared in amazement at the Invisibility Cloak while Neville and Kestrel glared at him.

"You stole Uncle James' Cloak?"

"Oh he is going to kill you when he finds out."

"He will not kill me, Kestrel."

"Okay true, he probably won't kill you, but he will definitely ground you for the whole summer.

"Probably, but it'll be worth it." Harry shrugged and threw the Cloak over himself and Neville. "Are our feet covered?"

"Yeah you're good." Kestrel walked them out of the Common Room so it didn't look like the portrait of the Fat Lady was swinging open by itself. It seemed as though lady luck was shining on them that afternoon as the portrait was empty when they entered the hallway. She whispered a quick good luck to her brothers then walked back inside the Common Room and rejoined Ginny in their usual spot.

Deciding to make it look like they were doing something Ginny had gone up to their dorm to get their research on Hogwarts and its Founders, and since they had the Map Ginny gave it a quick scan for any room that they had not managed to find for their own map, specifically the room of the founders. Unfortunately they were not to be that lucky, as they could not find anything on the original Map that they may have missed.

Kestrel split her attention between reading books she had gotten from the library, on Hogwarts early history, and keeping an eye on the Snape dot on the Map. Ginny kept an eye on Quirrel while she tried to decipher Remus' notes. Ron's writing was nearly as bad as Remus' so the four of them were hoping that she would be able to translate the old Marauder's notes.

They sat for several hours alternating between watching the map for movement and their own research. Snape had moved from the Staff Room to his office, and had been there for the last two hours. Quirrel had spent the time seemingly pacing his office, only leaving for a brief moment to enter his quarters, before returning to his office and resuming his previous activities.

Not long before Curfew was to be reached several things happened at once. Quirrel left his office on the 5th floor and began making his way towards the stair cases; Snape had exited his office and began wandering about his classroom; Hedwig flew in through an open window in the common room and landed on Ginny and Kestrel's notes scattering several quills and a few pieces of parchment, including the Marauder's Map.

Kestrel dove out her seat and scooped the Map up off the floor, trying to relocate Quirrel's dot as fast as possible. Ginny took the scrap of paper that was clutched in the snowy owl's talons and scanned it quickly. "Mr. Black is on his way."

"My dad's coming, not Uncle James?"

"That's what the letter says. According to this he finishes work in," she glanced at a clock above the fireplace. "10 minutes. Then he's Apparating to Hogsmeade. He also says not to do anything stupid."

"Too late, where's that bloody mirror. Quirrel's on his way to the third floor." Kestrel had finally found the DADA Professor's dot and he was a lot closer to Harry and Neville than she liked.

Ginny handed Kestrel the mirror and she turned it so it was facing her. "Harry Potter."

The mirror shimmered for a few seconds then showed Harry's dimly lit face. "Kestrel, what's happening?"

"Quirrel's on his way. Dad should be here soon, but he's not going to make it before Quirrel reaches you."

Harry paled a little but nodded resolutely. "Okay. Neville and I are going to have to try and stop him."

"How, you're First Years. Granted we were raised by Aurors and know more spells than most first years, but nothing that can match a teacher, let alone Voldemort."

"We were also raised Marauder's. We'll think of something. Go to the Entrance Hall and wait for Sirius to get here then bring him here. Hopefully he'll get here before we get in over our heads."

"I'm pretty sure we're already over our heads, Harry."

"Not helping Neville. Shh! I hear him. We'll be fine, Kes, go wait for Padfoot." Before Kestrel or Ginny could protest further Harry cut off the connection and the mirror went black.

Kestrel and Ginny stared at the empty mirror, their own worried reflections staring back at them, then both girls leapt to their feet, hastily shoving quills and books and parchment into whichever bag was closest. Kestrel snatched up the Map and followed Ginny to the portrait hole. They almost bowled over Fred and George who were just coming to the entrance to the Tower as they were exiting. Ginny ducked under Fred's arm and Kestrel dodged around George, dancing a bit so as not to knock him off his feet.

"Sorry still not done with the Map, We'll give it back later. Promise!" The older twins could only stare as the two girls vanished down the stairs, leading to the castle's lower levels.

"Barking mad the both of them." They said together and entered the still open portrait hole.


	15. Chapter 15

Ginny and Kestrel flew down the stairs their feet hardly seeming to touch the stone steps, such was their haste to reach the Main Entrance. They hit the landing of the Main Entrance just as the large wooden doors swung open admitting Sirius Black, his red Auror Robes swirling around him.

"Dad!" Kes came to a sliding stop in front of her father tilting her head back to meet grey eyes that matched her own.

"Where are they?"

"The Third Floor corridor. Quirrel was already on his way, I told Harry and Nev not to do anything stupid, but you know them."

"Only too well. They're probably already head over shoulders in trouble. Do you have the map?" Kes handed over the map and Sirius indulged in a brief wistful smile at having his old map back in his hands. But he quickly was back to all business when he saw the two dots labelled Harry and Neville, sneaking along not far back from the dot labelled Quirrel.

"Merlin's beard! Okay I'm going to get the boys, I want you two," he pointed at Kestrel and Ginny in turn, "to go and find a Professor, preferably a head of house, and tell them what's happening, and get them to that corridor."

They nodded and ran back towards the stairs. Kestrel stopped at the first step and turned back to face her father. "Be careful dad and bring yourself and the boys back in one piece."

"I'll do my best luv. Go on now. _Mischief Managed._" He stuffed the now deactivated map into his robe and proceeded to change from a rather handsome black haired man into a shaggy furred giant black dog. He shook himself all over, barking once, and then took off up the stairs racing passed Ginny and Kestrel, hurrying to get to the third floor. Hoping against hope to be in time to keep Harry and Neville from getting into a situation they were ill-equipped to handle.

Ginny and Kestrel looked down every hallway they came to, calling out for various professors as they ran, hoping that someone would hear them.

"Black. Weasley. Is there a particular reason you are raising such a racket?" The two First Years came to a sliding halt, Ginny nearly tripping over Kestrel.

"Snape."

"That's Professor Snape, Black."

"Right sorry, I don't really have time for politeness." Snape's dark eyes narrowed and he glared down at the small girls before him. Before he could reprimand them for their rude behaviour, Kestrel was already pushing forward, hair rapidly changing colour in her harassed and worried state. "Quirrel's gone after the stone, Harry and Neville went to try and stop him, but we told Uncle James about Dumbledore being gone and he said he'd get here as soon as he could, but dad came instead and now he's here and trying to get to Harry and Neville before they get to Quirrel, who is really Voldemort in disguise and Voldemort wants the stone so he can resurrect himself, and finish off the job he started when he tried to kill Harry when we were babies."

Snape could only stare down at Kestrel who was taking heaving breaths, having said all of that without taking one. "You're telling me that _Sirius Black_ is in this castle and that the Potter and Longbottom brats are attempting to keep one of the most powerful wizards in history from retrieving the Philosopher's Stone?"

"YES!"

Snape stood in silence for several moments before pointing at both Ginny and Kestrel in turn, speaking softly and in a no nonsense tone as he always did. "Go to the Headmaster's Office, on the seventh floor. The password to get passed the Gargoyle is Blood Pops. There is a painting of the first ICW conference on the east wall. It's connected to the Ministers office. Tell the painting to tell the Minister to send Dumbledore back to the school."

With his instructions given Snape turned towards the stairs black robes billowing around him as he strode away.

"Where are you going?"

A look of disgust came over his face as he glanced at the two first year girls over his shoulder. "To go help your _father_ save your brothers from their own stupidity." With those final words spoken Snape hurried up the stairs towards the third floor corridor.

"Right, so I guess Snape isn't in league with Voldemort."

"Nope, but he's still an evil, greasy git. Come on Gin; let's get to the Headmasters office."

A little while earlier:

"This is stupid!"

"Of course it's stupid, but dad is probably not going to make it in time, and at least this way we can tell him which way he went, at the most we can maybe try and slow the bugger down."

Harry and Neville were ducked down behind a statue at the base of the third flood corridor staircase, hiding under the Cloak, waiting for Quirrel.

"We're going to die."

"Well with that attitude we are, Longbottom. Geez, could you be more depressing?" Harry hissed.

"I can try, if you'd like."

"Please don't."

"I wish you'd brought Kes with you instead, she's better with a wand than I am."

"She's faster yeah, but you can keep your head better in a crisis than Kes can. And you know me and Kes would just argue about the best way to do things."

"That's true. You two are kind of useless on your own."

"Shut it."

"Harry? Neville?" Both boys slapped a hand over each other's mouths and froze, eyes wide and staring at one another. The peeked out from behind the statue to see Ron Weasley standing there looking rather confused as he tried to locate the source of his friends voices.

"Ron! Ron, get over here!"

Ron glanced to his left and see's two hands beckoning him over to the Statue of Gregory the Smarmy. As he reached the statue he was grabbed roughly by the lapels of his robe and pulled behind it by two separate pairs of hands. "Whoa, hey what the – "

"Shut up, Ron!"

"Harry?"

"No, it's Snape."

"Where are you, I can't see you Harry."

"I'm right in front of…oh right the Cloak." Harry pulled the cloak off of his and Neville's heads revealing them to the confused red-head. "Whoa, that's an Invisibility Cloak."

"Yeah, it's my father's I uh…borrowed it?"

Neville had a sudden coughing fit, and Ron would later swear he could make out the words stolen.

"Shut it, Longbottom. Anyway, what are you doing here Ron? I thought you were hanging out with the twins and Lee?"

"I was, the Squid got bored and it left, so we left."

"So you went wandering?"

"I'm not as smart as Ginny, or you three, or Hermione, I have to focus a lot more on my school work just to keep up with you, so I don't get time to explore like you guys. I'm taking the time to do it now."

Harry looked embarrassed and busied himself with rearranging the cloak. Neville patted Ron's shoulder, "Fair enough, mate. While I don't want to discourage you from your exploring, but you really need to do it on another floor."

"What? Why? What's wrong with this floor?"

"Nothing it's just that –"

Harry's hand shot up, gesturing for silence. "Shh, I thought I heard something."

"Harry Potter!"

Harry dug into his pants pocket and pulled out a mirror. "Kestrel Black." The image in the mirror swirled smoke and Kes' worried face appeared in the mirrors surface. "Kestrel, what's happening?"

"Quirrel's on his way. My Dad should be here soon, but he's not going to make it before Quirrel reaches you."

Harry paled a little but nodded resolutely. "Okay. Neville and I are going to have to try and stop him."

He watched as Kes' face paled in the mirror before going red with anger. "How, you're First Years. Granted we were raised by Aurors and know more spells than most first years, but nothing that can match a teacher, let alone Voldemort."

Harry ignored Ron's squeak from over by Neville. "We were also raised Marauder's. We'll think of something. Go to the Entrance Hall and wait for Sirius to get here then bring him here. Hopefully he'll get here before we get in over our heads."

"I'm pretty sure we're already over our heads, Harry."

"For the last time, **not** helping, Neville. Shh! I hear him. We'll be fine, Kes, go wait for your dad." Harry deactivated the mirror before Kestrel could say anything further.

"So what's the plan Harry?" Neville whispered.

"I'm working on it."

"I have a question." Harry and Neville turned to look at Ron, as if seeing him for the first time. "What did Kestrel mean when she said Vol-V-V- He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"You need to go, now, Ron. Before Quirrel gets here…better yet, duck behind the statue and after we leave to follow Quirrel, go and find a Professor. Tell them Quirrel is going after the Philosopher's Stone."

Ron opened his mouth to tell them exactly what he thought of that idea, but Neville clapped a hand over his mouth and pulled him further behind the statue and Harry quickly swung the Cloak over the three of them. Being crouched behind the statue, the Cloak was easily able to cover all three.

The three boys peered around the statue and watched as their usually stuttering, shy professor strode up the corridor with a confidence they had never seen. Quirrel walked up to the door that Fluffy was behind, he tapped the door to unlocked it, and it swung open, and Quirrel stepped inside. The snarling and growling of three heads filled the corridor along with the unmistakeable sounds of music.

Harry grabbed the sleeves of Neville and Ron's robes and dragged them with him to the doors edge. The three boys peered inside to see a harp resting in the corner, playing a slow soft melody, which miraculously was keeping the Cerberus asleep.

"Music, really? Music is what keeps that monster asleep?"

"Right? I totally thought it would have been a giant, juicy steak."

"You guys ran into this thing?" Ron's voice went up several octaves as he looked at the three-headed dog, curled up asleep in the corner.

"Yup. Now listen Ron, we want you to go back and try and find a professor to come and help. Nev and I are going to try and slow down Quirrel."

"What, no way!"

"Ron, listen."

"No. You listen. I'm not letting you guys go down there on your own."

"Ron…"

"NO!" Neville and Harry hurriedly shushed him and Ron lowered his voice accordingly, and continued on in a hissed whisper. "First off, do you know what Gin would do to me if she found out that I was with you and just left?" All three winced at the image that conjured up. Ginny had a temper like an insulted Hippogriff. "Secondly, I know we haven't seen eye to eye for a lot of the year, but you're still my friends, and I'm not leaving you to face You-Know-Who by yourselves!"

Neville and Harry could only stare at the gangly red-head in front of them in confounded bewilderment for a few moments, before they both broke out into huge grins.

"What? Why are you two looking at me like that?"

"We'll tell you later. Come one." Harry said, the smile sliding off his face. "Let's go and catch up to Quirrel-mort before he gets too far ahead of us."

They slowly crept into the room, making sure to stay under the Invisibility Cloak, only the very edges of their shoes showing. Quirrel had already slipped through the trap door and moved on beyond Fluffy's chamber. The music was still playing softly and the Cerberus was still snoring loudly, so Harry pulled the Cloak off and shoved it into the pocket of his robe and Neville walked over to the trap door.

Neville had his wand out and was peering down; trying to see what was below the trapped door. He stood up straight and shook his head, "It's too dark to see what's below, no idea what we're jumping into."

Harry and Ron walked over and joined Neville in looking down into the dark pit that was beyond the trap door, all of their faces pale in the unlit room. "Well, I'm not letting Quirrel get any farther ahead than he already has." Without waiting for input from Ron or Neville, Harry gripped his wand tightly in his hand and leapt feet first into the opening in the floor. Neville, not willing to let his brother, and best friend, go into danger alone and jumped in after him. Ron, not wanting to be left alone in a room with a monster that could wake up at any moment, followed Harry and Neville into the abyss.

They landed on what felt like a soft mat or strips of foam, but when Ron tried to push himself to his feet the floor flowed around his hand like a snake. "Ugh! What was that?"

"What was what?"

"The floor! It moved!"

"Floors don't just move, Ron." Harry tried to get his feet under him, but his foot was grabbed around the ankle and he was yanked back to the ground. "What the bloody hell was that?"

"I told you!"

"Well good for you, Weasley!"

"Shut it, and stop moving, the both of you!"

Harry and Ron turned to look at Neville who was sitting stock still, not a muscle twitching.

"What is it Nev, what's wrong?"

"We're sitting in Devil's Snare, the more you move or struggle the tighter the vines get, it'll strangle you if you struggle enough."

"How do we get out of it?" Ron asked, with more than a bit of panic in his voice.

"Give me a moment. I'm just trying to free my wand arm."

Harry and Ron waited with bated breath as Neville bit by bit, carefully extracted his arm from the constricting vines, the vines slowly wrapping themselves around the three wizards. With a final wrench Neville pulled his arm free with a yell and held his wand aloft, "**_Lumos_**!"

The small room was filled with a light as bright as the noon day sun, and the Devil's Snare retreated immediately to the dark crevices still hidden from the light of Neville's wand. The three boys hurried to get off the floor and through the door that led to the next room.

"Why is it always plants!" Harry complained as he pulled bits of plant matter out of his hair and straightened his robes.

"That was brilliant Neville. How'd you know how to get rid of that plant?"

"Easy. We have them at Longbottom Manor, guarding an underground escape tunnel. Gran taught me the rhyme when I was younger so I could escape if I ever had to. 'Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare. It's deadly fun, but wilts in the sun.' See, easy as pie!"

"Genius, as always Neville. See I knew I brought you for a reason." They arrived at the door that led out of the room, and Harry tapped with his own wand, Neville's still glowing, keeping the Devil's Snare at bay. "Alohamora."

With a click the lock turned and the door swung open, admitting the three boys into the next room. A room in which they promptly had to duck, as hundreds of small birds swooped down around their heads.

"What the bloody hell are those?"

"Birds?"

"No, they're…keys?"

"Flying Keys."

"Well that's just useless." Harry complained as he swatted a winged key out of his face and made his way to the door across the room. He tapped his wand again, muttering the unlocking spell and cursed colourfully when nothing happened. Harry glanced from the lock, to his wand and back again, struggling to figure out why it hadn't worked.

He was about to attempt the spell again when one of the keys flew into the side of his head; he swatted at the offending key in annoyance and swung his wand up, only to have it knocked aside by both Ron and Neville.

"Wait Harry!"

"What? Why?"

"Think with your head, instead of you wand for once, Potter?" Harry blinked a few times and started to smile, only to have Neville smack him again. "Now is not the time!"

"Fine, why can't I blow up the keys?"

Ron snatched one out of the air and tried putting it in the keyhole. "Nope, not a fit."

Harry looked from the key in Ron's hand to the door. Then to the flock of key's circling the room. "Oh."

Neville took the key from Ron, observing it closely. "Yes, oh. This key looks too new for this lock. We're looking for an older key, probably iron, like the lock itself."

The three boys scanned the room for the one key out of a thousand that they were looking for, but were having difficulty focusing with all the fluttering and the glittering above them.

"Trying to find one key out of thousands is going to take too long, Quirrel is going to get the stone!" Ron threw his hands up in frustration then froze suddenly, starting at the door they had originally come through. "You have go to be bloody joking."

"What?" Harry and Neville turned to look where Ron was now pointing. There, leaning against the door frame were three brooms; old and rickety, but still flight worthy.

Neville and Harry cursed simultaneously and walked over to the brooms, each mounting one and tossing the third to Ron. The three Gryffindor's took to the air after circling the room a few times, Neville spotted the key they were looking for, out of the corner of his eye. He angled his flight to intersect the erratically flying key and gently snagged it out of the air, one of its silvery-blue wings was bent badly. "Got it!'

The three boys landed, leaving the borrowed brooms against the frame as Neville turned the look and opened the door. The door swung open and they were hit in the face with a stench that nearly had them retching.

"Ugh, what is that god awful smell?" Ron demanded, his words muffled by the sleeve of his cloak which he had stuffed over his nose and mouth.

"It smells like that bloody troll from Halloween."

"That would be because there is an unconscious Troll on the floor, Harry." Neville's voice was just as muffled as Ron's, and his face was twice as pale, remembering the terror he felt on that Halloween night.

"Well, look on the bright side," Harry forced a shaky smile, swallowing hard. "At least we didn't have to knock this one out ourselves."

"Let's just get out of this room before it wakes up yeah?"

"Right."

"You guys and the girl's took down one of these things?!" Ron squeaked as they skirted around the edge of the room, doing everything possible to not accidently awaken the troll.

"Yeah, but it was mostly just team work and a **lot** of luck."

The door to the next room wasn't locked, thankfully. They opened the door only enough that they could slip in one by one, not wanting to risk the door creaking and waking the Troll. The sight of what waited for them on the other side, however, made Harry want to go back and face the troll instead.

"What the bloody hell is this?"

"Chess!"

"Yes, but why is it so…giant?"

Indeed the chess board and pieces were at least 10 times the size of a standard Wizard Chess set.

"Who cares why it's giant, what is it doing here?"

"This must be McGonagall's contribution to the protection. We probably have to play our way across."

"In case the memory of Christmas has escaped you Weasley, Nev and I are terrible at Chess.

"Yes, but I'm not. I beat Percy and our older brother, Bill, at chess all the time. Neville, you take the place of that Castle there on the right, and Harry, take the Bishop on that same side."

"What about you Ron?" Neville questioned as he took the space the Black Castle had just vacated. Harry and the Bishop he was to be replacing seemed to be having some sort of staring match.

"I'm going to be a Knight." He suited words to action and walked over to the Knight that was on the left side of the board and took its place.

"Ready?" The Potter and Longbottom heirs nodded, trusting Ron's superior chess abilities to get them through that door.

"Okay, white generally plays first." He pointed as a white pawn move forward two spaces, and with that opening move from their faceless opponents, the game was on.

Ron directed their chess pieces with the precision of a general commanding his troops.

"Harry, move four squares to your right."

"Neville, back two spaces."

Their first loss was brutal. Not because it happened, Ron had explained before he moved the pawn, but the violence with which the white pawn took out theirs was staggering. After that things moved much more quickly as Ron directed them and their other pieces to move here and there, taking out white pieces in retaliation to their attacks. A few times Ron almost missed Neville or Harry being taken out, but he always managed to get them out of the way in time.

The Black Queen brutally dispatched their other Bishop, quite near to where Neville currently was, his facing going nearly as white as their opponents forms.

"Sorry Neville, had to do it, now Harry can take out their last Bishop." Harry moved to the space directed and the Queen moved out of the way.

Ron looked over board trying to decide on his next move. "Where nearly across, just give me a few moments to think." He rocked back on his heels suddenly and nodded to himself, "Yes, there's nothing else for it, it's the only way."

"What's that?"

"I have to be taken."

"What, no!" Neville and Harry both started to protest, but the youngest male Weasley cut them off sharply.

"That's chess! Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to win!"

"Not acceptable!"

"Do you want Quirrelmort to get the stone! I take one move forward, the Black Queen will take me out, and that Leaves Harry clear to put the King in check."

"But,"

"We don't have time to argue about it anymore! If we don't hurry up, he'll get the Stone."

Realizing that there was nothing that they could say to change Ron's mind. "Alright Ron, make your move."

"Right. Don't dawdle after you put the King in check, I'll be fine just go stop Quirrel." The two boys nodded and Ron took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing." He moved forward, shakily, freckles standing out on his ashen face. The opposing Queen moved forward and struck with brutal precision, striking him across the head with one massive stone arm. Ron slumped to the ground and the Queen dragged him off the board. Both boys managed to hold their squares, despite the need to check on their friend.

Harry moved forward three paces and stood in front of the King, "Check Mate." The King threw the crown at Harry's feet, ending the match. The boys hurried off the board glancing at Ron, who looked for all the world like he was fast asleep.

"Do you think he's –"

"I'm sure he's fine." Harry said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than his brother. "We'll get him on our way back through, let's just do what he asked and go stop Quirrel."

"Right. Who do you think's next?" The flames of the torches that lined the walls danced and jumped as the two boys jogged down the hallway.

"Well, we've hit Hagrid's, Sprout, the key's had to be Flitwick, I'm guessing the Troll was Quirrel, the Chess was McGonagall, and the next will either have to be Snape or Dumbledore's."

They entered a large chamber with small table in the centre of the room with seven different shaped vials, filled with liquid. In the far wall was an archway that lead to a darkened corridor. As soon as they crossed the threshold into the chamber a wall of purple shot up behind them, and the previously open corridor was blocked by black flames. They leapt away from the flames behind them, checking to see if the robes had accidently caught fire.

They approached the table warily, hoping not to set off any more traps, and noticed a slip of parchment sitting in front of the row of bottles, written in a very familiar spidery scrawl:

"_Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,  
>Two of us will help you, whichever you would find,<br>One among us seven will let you move ahead,  
>Another will transport the drinker back instead,<br>Two among our number hold only nettle wine,  
>Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.<br>Choose, unless you wish to stay here for evermore,  
>To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:<br>First, however slyly the poison tries to hide  
>You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;<br>Second, different are those who stand at either end,  
>But if you would move onwards, neither is your friend;<br>Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,  
>Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;<br>Fourth, the second left and the second on the right  
>Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.<em>"

"Logic." Harry grumbled in disgust. "I hate logic puzzles, can't we just blast our way through?"

"Knowing Snape, I highly doubt it."

"Damn."

They stared at the parchment for several moments before Neville abruptly reached into Harry's cloak and pulled out the mirror. "Hey, watch it."

"Sorry, Harry. Kestrel Black!"

It was a few moments before Kestrel's face came into view in the mirror. "Neville! Where's Harry?"

"He's here, but we have a problem."

"What?"

"There's a wall of fire and a riddle puzzle between us and Quirrel."

"Dad's on the way, he should be there soon, can't you just wait?"

"No, there's no time, he's already in the next room which probably has the stone."

"Fine. What's the puzzle?"

Neville hurriedly explained the problem showing Kes the riddle and the layout of the table. It was several minutes more, and the sound of Kestrel and Ginny discussing the puzzle. "Show me the table again."

Neville turned the mirror and let the two girls look at the table. "Okay, we got it!" Neville turned the mirror back to face himself and Harry, to see Kestrel holding up a scrap of paper with seven circles drawn on it, and two were circled.

"The one on the right hand side well get you back the way you came in, and the smallest one will get you across to where you need to go. Are you **sure** that you can't just wait for Da?"

"Yes, we're sure!"

"Okay, be careful. Please."

"We'll do our best. _Finite_." Neville cancelled the charm on the mirror and handed it back to Harry, who pocketed it carefully. They looked at the smallest vial and came to the same realization simultaneously. There was only enough potion in the vial for one of them to go through the fire, and onto the Stone.

Before Neville even had the chance to make a logical argument on waiting for Sirius, Harry snatched the tiny, sparkling blue vial from the table and shot it back, diving threw the now cool to the touch, black flames, leaving a now livid Neville on the other side.

"Potter, you utter prat! What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Saving time. We don't have time for you to try and talk us into waiting for Padfoot. Drink the other vial, go and get Ron and then get to Sirius. I'll go stall Quirrelmort."

Neville stared at him hard for a few seconds, but nodded in the end. The rage he was feeling was still plain on his face. "Fine, but for the record," he picked up the tall, smoky green vial and uncorked it. "If you get out of this alive, I am making your summer a living nightmare, Potter. You've been warned."

"Warning received. See you later."

Harry didn't wait to hear Neville's parting shot, just spun on his foot and ran down the dimly lit corridor. Hoping he was going to make it in time to stop Voldemort from getting the Stone, and coming back into the world.

He'd give his life to keep that from happening if he had to.


	16. Chapter 16

Neville ran back into the Chessboard room and hurried over to Ron's crumpled form. He checked his head wound, trying not to cause the unconscious redhead any more injury. He was about to cast a levitation charm to float Ron back the way he had come, when he heard the approach of hurried footsteps. He drew his wand and grabbed a hunk of rock, spinning around to confront whoever it was.

He nearly fainted with relief when he saw Sirius running up to him. "Neville!"

"Uncle Sirius!" Neville dropped the stone as Sirius dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around his nephew's shoulders.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Ron's hit his head, but he seems alright, too-"

"And where's Mr. Potter?" Neville glanced up in confusion at Snape, briefly wondering why he was even there to begin with.

"He went on ahead to try and stop Quirrell."

"Of course he did, much to much like his dad for his own good. Come on, Snape." Sirius stood, a hand on Neville's shoulder. "We're going to go and get your brother, take your friend up to the hospital wing."

"Okay." Neville flicked his wand, and Ron slowly began to float.

Neville called out just before Snape and Sirius would have disappeared into the other room. "Uncle Sirius?"

"Yes, cub?"

"Be careful, and bring Harry back."

"I'll do my best, get going." Neville nodded and watched as the two men vanished through the door.

Sirius scowled at the fire that sprung up behind them as they crossed the threshold, following Snape to the table that held the potions and the riddle. "Logic puzzles, Snape?"

"Many Wizards and Witches lack basic common sense, something I would think you would know a lot about, Black."

Snape's sneer did not go unnoticed by Sirius, but his biting retort was not to be heard, as a short scream echoed into the room from the one beyond.

"Harry!" Sirius turned a panicked expression to the dark Professor. "Which bottle is it?"

Snape two took long strides to the table and picked up the smallest bottle, nearly dropping it when a second scream, this one longer and more agonizing than the first ripped through the room.

"The potion, Severus!" Snape nearly dropped the bottle again at the uncharacteristic use of his given name, but managed to toss the bottle to Sirius. The Auror uncorked it and downed the potion in one smooth motion, tossing the bottle back to Snape.

Without waiting a second more, Sirius turned into Padfoot and leaped through the now cool flames, and Snape returned the potion to the table, waiting impatiently for it to refill.

The scene that Sirius entered to, made his blood run cold. The were pieces of stone ceiling scattered across the floor, a red stone glinting amongst the debris. A man he assumed to be Quirrell was in the centre of the room, his skin was like burning charcoal, fading red in places, and flaking in others, bits falling off and disintegrating before even hitting the floor. His godson was slumped against the wall, near the doorway he had entered through, blood running down from his now angry, red scare, his hands were blistered and burnt, glasses nowhere to be seen, and skin deathly pale.

He ignored the crumbling form of Quirrell and dropped to his knees next to his godson, shaking hands reaching up to check Harry's pulse, a relieved, slightly hysterical, laugh escaping him when he found a steady, but faint beat beneath his fingers. He pushed Harry's messy hair off his face, checking him over for further hidden injuries.

His wand snapped up when footsteps approached, only lowering after he recognized the faces of Snape and Dumbledore.

"Harry! Sirius, is he - "

"Alive? Yes, no thanks to you." He scooped Harry up into his arms, standing and turning to glare at Dumbledore, gray eyes burning with a cold rage. "If my arms weren't full of unconscious eleven year old I'd hex you so thoroughly they'd never be able to remove the asses head I want to give you."

"Now, Sirius-"

"DON'T! Don't you dare, 'Now Sirius,' me old man! You hid the bloody Philosopher's Stone in a school full of **children**! Have you lost your damn mind?"

Dumbledore opened his mouth to try and defend himself, but was cut off once more. "Don't bother answering, I don't have time for whatever tale you're going to try and spin, to make this okay. If you'll excuse me, I'm taking my godson to the hospital wing. Out of my way."

Harry opened his eyes, groaning faintly as he tried to sit up, his whole body was one huge ache, as if he had been pounded by a horde of bludgers. The room was blurry so he did not see the hand that reached out for him until he felt it touch his shoulder. He jumped and reached for a wand that wasn't there. "Easy there, son. You're safe now."

"Dad? Where am I? Are Nev and Ron okay? What happened to Quirrell-mort?"

James chuckled as he handed Harry his glasses. "One question at a time, kiddo." He waited until Harry was sitting up and comfortable, glasses resting on his face once again, he glanced down in surprise at his bandaged hands, trying to remember when he injured them. "You're in the Hospital Wing, Sirius brought you here after he arrived to find you unconscious. Neville and Ron are fine, they're probably with Kestrel and your other friends, waiting to know when they can come and see you. As for Quirrell, why don't you tell me what you remember of what happened, and I'll try and fill in the blanks."

"Okay. I left Neville behind in the potion riddle room, I'm assuming he went to go and get Ron to the Infirmary, and I went on ahead to the next room and found Quirrell-mort standing in front of a giant mirror."

"Hello Potter. I must admit I'm surprised, I did not expect it to be you who came to try and stop me." Quirrell spoke without a hint of a stutter, a calmness in his face that Harry hadn't seen all year, reflected back at him from the large, ornate mirror that the Professor was looking into.

"Yes well, no one believed us when we said you were after the Stone, so we decided to take matters into our own hands."

"Yes, who would believe that p-p-poor st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell, would be out to steal the Stone?" As he had been talking Harry had been slowly making his way down the stone steps, into the sunken chamber that held the mirror and Quirrell. Once his feet hit the chamber floor, however, Quirrell snapped his fingers and ropes sprang up from the floor, wrapping around him tightly, trapping his arms against his sides.

Quirrell finally turned then and faced Harry, annoyance clearly written on his thin face. "You and your friends are much too nosey to live, Potter. All of your running around on Halloween, searching for your friends. For all I knew you could have seen me going to see what guarded the Stone."

"So it **was** you who let the Troll into the castle!"

"Yes it was. I have a special affinity with them you see. You must have seen what I did to that troll a few rooms back. Unfortunately while the other Professors were looking for the Troll, Snape – who already suspected me – headed to the Third Floor Corridor to cut me off. So not only did my Troll fail to kill you and your rotten siblings, but that great beast also could not even bite Snape's leg off properly."

"Now, stand there and be quiet Potter. I need to examine this mirror. Only Dumbledore would come up with something as ingenious as this." Quirrell walked around the mirror, tapping it here and there with his wand, muttering to himself as he circled it.

As soon as Quirrell was on the back side of the mirror Harry started to struggle trying to get his wand arm loose so he could get free of the ropes.

"It's no use, Potter, you won't get free, and so it's no use to keep trying. I'll retrieve the stone, kill you, go and find your _siblings_, kill them, and then revive my master." He turned back to the mirror, missing the rude gesture Harry gave him. "I see myself presenting the Stone to my Master, but **how** do I get it out of the Mirror?"

"_Use the boy._" Harry looked around trying to locate this newest voice, which seemed to fill the room like the sound of a thousand hissing snakes.

"What was that?" Harry demanded, struggling harder to free himself, or at least his wand arm from the ropes.

"My Master. He is with me wherever I go,' said Quirrell quietly. "I met him when I travelled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it...Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me.' Quirrell shivered suddenly. 'He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me ... decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me."

"So it was Voldemort I've been reacting to all year then, not you."

"Quite so. No come over here," he flicked his wand and Harry floated over to the Mirror, where Quirrell set him down, right in front of it.

"Now, what do you see, boy."

Harry could not help but gaze into the Mirror, tying to think up a lie and at the same time prevent Quirrell from retrieving the Stone. He did all he could to hide his astonishment when his reflection was suddenly no longer encased in ropes. His reflection gave him a cheeky grin as it held up a fist-sized red stone, then slid it into its pocket. Harry felt his previously empty pocket become heavy, as if someone had just placed something inside.

Harry turned his head and stared Quirrell dead in the eye, "You dead, and my family safe and happy."

"_He lies!_"

"Can't prove it." He stuck his tongue out defiantly and regretted the action almost immediately when Quirrell back handed him. He glared up at the masquerading professor and spat out a wad of blood from his bitten tongue, just missing Quirrell's robes.

"Tell the truth, boy what do you see!"

"_Let me speak to him._"

"Master, you are not yet strong enough."

"_I am strong enough for this. Do as I say,_"

Quirrell turned his back on Harry, and began unwinding his Turban, and the pain in Harry's scar, which had been at a dull ache since he entered the chamber, increased tenfold, making his eyes water, as the Turban fell to the floor.

"_Harry Potter, we meet again._"

"Voldemort? Have to say, not what I expected for an evil, megalomaniac."

"_Yes. You see what I have been forced to become, after that fateful Halloween. Do you see what I must do to survive?_" Harry blinked the tears from his eyes, shaking his head, trying to rid himself of the searing pain in his scar. "_Live off another like a mere __**parasite**__, all thanks to you, because you did not have enough sense to die._"

"I'm not really sorry about that, just so you know."

"_Unicorn blood can sustain me, as you know doubt may have heard about the attacks on the Forest's herd, but it cannot give me a body of my own. But there is something that can, something that, conveniently enough, is inside your pocket._"

Three things happened at once, Quirrell turned around to reach out for Harry; Harry managed to get his wand arm free, and dispel the ropes; and Quirrell drew his own wand.

"Very good Potter, it would seem that you are not as helpless as you would have most people believe."

"You think our dad's would let us attend a school full of Death Eater brats and not teach us how to defend ourselves? How stupid do you think we actually are?"

"Very. _Crucio!_"

Harry screamed briefly before he managed to control himself, his knees hitting the unforgiving stone floor with a crack that echoed through the Chamber.

"_Don't be a fool Harry._" Voldemort began, as Quirrell moved closer to the gasping eleven year old. "_Why suffer a horrific death, when you can join me and live._"

Harry looked up at Quirrell form his position on the floor, hate filling his green eyes. "Never!"

"_Bravery. Your Mother had it too. Tell me Harry, would you like to see her again. And Kestrel's mother, I could even heal Neville's mother of her insanity._" Quirrell-mort waved his hand and the Mirror turned to face Harry. This time he did see his family, happy, and whole, and safe. "_We can bring them back, together. All I ask for, is something in return._"

Harry stood on shaky legs, pulling the Stone from his pocket as he straightened.

"_That's it Harry. There is no good, or evil, only power…and those that are too __**weak**__ to seek it. Together we can do __**extraordinary**__ things. All you have to do is give me that Stone._"

Harry glanced at the Mirror again to find that it was empty of his family, instead only showing the reflection of Voldemort's disembodied face on the back of Quirrell's head, smiling in triumph.

"Liar!" Harry snapped his wand at the air, in a whipping motion and a huge bang filled the room, echoing loudly, pieces of the stone ceiling falling between. He turned to make a run for the hall he had entered through.

"**_Kill him!_**"

With his back turned Harry did not see Quirrell leap for him, floating across the room like a Dementor; easily clearing the rubble that was between them. Quirrell slammed into his back, taking them both to the floor, causing Harry to drop the Stone. Quirrell wrapped his hands around Harry's neck and began choking him. Harry tried to reach for his wand, but quickly realizing that it was too far out of reach, grabbed at Quirrell's wrists instead.

The possessed Professor released Harry with a scream of pain and surprise, and looked at where Harry's hands had touched his wrists. The skin was blistered, hard, and cracking, and pieces were flaking off like ash.

"What magic is this?"

"_Get the Stone!_"

Quirrell reached for the Stone, and Harry in a desperate attempt to stop him, shoved his hands into Quirrell's face. Quirrell screamed in agony, a sound that Harry echoed as the pain in his scar became unbearable. With his eyes scrunched shut, he did not see Quirrell's body changing to a stone like form, or feel the energy of the room building. As his consciousness slipped from his grasp, he heard what sounded like an explosion, rock the room, and felt himself become weightless, before everything went dark.

"And that's all I remember."

James nodded, the look on his face more serious than one Harry had ever seen before. "Padfoot arrived just after that, I think. Gave Dumbledore a bit of an earful, and then brought you here. Ron was released the next day."

"Next day…how long have I been out for?"

"Almost four days."

"Four days! But I wasn't even hurt that badly!"

"No, but you expanded a lot of magical energy doing what you did to Quirrell, we thought you'd be out for a week or more." James couldn't keep the worry from his eyes, and Harry couldn't help but feel guilty for making his family worry so much about him.

"I'm sorry Dad, I know I should have waited for Uncle Sirius, but I didn't know how far away he was; I just didn't think I had the time."

"I know, son, and we aren't mad at you, Kestrel probably is, but you know that she is most likely glad that you aren't hurt, and uses her anger to hide her worry."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a few moments, before Harry broke the silence, asking something that had been bothering him since he started telling his Dad what had happened. "Dad, what exactly was it that I did to Quirrell? How, how did I stop him?"

James ran a hand through his perpetually messy hair, a small look of confusion passing over his own features. "Well as to that, I'm still not quite actually sure –"

"Maybe I will be able to shed some light on that particular mystery, James." Head and Heir of House Potter turned simultaneously to look at Dumbledore as he entered the Infirmary.

"I apologize for interrupting, I was coming to see if Harry had awoken yet, and could not help overhearing his question. Glad to see you up and about my boy."

Harry ignored the platitude and sat further up in his bed, "How did I stop Quirrell. It was like I, I burned him up from the inside out." Harry's skin went pale and his hands started to shake at the memory of what he saw and felt as Quirrell was burned alive from just his touch. He jumped again when James put a hand on his shoulder, trying to offer his son whatever comfort and support that he could.

Dumbledore conjured up a simple, wooden chair, and sat down at the foot of Harry's hospital bed. He laced his fingers together, resting his chin on his hands, blue eyes gazing at Harry over his half-moon glasses.

"Love."

"Come again?" Harry said, confusion flashing across his face.

"You're going to have to elaborate on that one for me as well, Albus."

"Of course." Dumbledore straightened a bit in his seat as he thought how best to explain his theory. "You see Harry, the night that Voldemort came to your home, you're mother refused to step aside, and sacrificed her own life to save not only yours, but Neville and Kestrel's as well." Harry nodded, following along so far. "Now that is not to say that if it had been, Kestrel or Neville in your place they would have had the same reaction."

"Why not?" Both Potter's questioned.

'Because, Voldemort marked you as his equal, that night in Godric's Hollow, and not your brother or sister."

"Your mother sacrificed herself for all of you, but because Voldemort marked you, it was you that your mother's protection latched on to. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you, and your siblings, leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign...to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed and ambition, sharing his soul with that of Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good."

Harry was dressed and sitting on the edge of his hospital bed, waiting for Madam Pomfrey to give him to okay to join the rest of Hogwarts at the Leaving Feast.

His head snapped up when he heard the click of the door, expecting to see the kindly Medi-Witch. He only just managed to hide his disappointment when it turned out to only be the Headmaster.

"Hello, Professor."

"Hello, my boy. It's good to see you up and about. I'm sure you're eager to join your family and friends at the feast, so I won't keep you long."

"You mean I'm free to go?" Harry stood up from his bed, and excited grin on his face.

"Of course, lad. I just wanted to ask if you had any further questions for me, that you maybe did not want your father to hear?"

Harry tilted his head in confusion, wondering why he wouldn't want his father to hear any questions he had to ask. He shook it off when one came to him, but he'd discuss whatever answer he got with his family, once they were safe at home. He wanted to see what the ageing Wizards answer would be.

"Actually, Professor Dumbledore, now that you mention it, I did have one question. Why? Why did Voldemort want us dead? Why now, and why eleven years ago? I mean, we were just babies. What threat could three toddlers, barely out of diapers, pose to a full grown Wizard?"

Dumbledore sighed sadly, "Unfortunately Harry, that is not a question I can answer for you at this time. Ask me again another day, it is not something that someone your age, with your whole life to look forward to, needs to be burdened with."

Harry glared at him suspiciously. "But you do know though, why he wants me and my siblings dead?"

"I have no definitive answers, only the suspicions of an old man." Before Harry could question further, Dumbledore clapped his hands and smiled. "Now, enough of that, I believe your father is here to collect you and bring you down to the Feast. We shouldn't keep everyone waiting." His blue eyes twinkled merrily. Harry was positive that before his time at Hogwarts was over, he would grow to hate that twinkling gaze.


	17. Chapter 17

"Ready Harry?" James asked, gripping his son's shoulder as they stood outside the doors to the Great Hall. Harry could hear the laughter of students and the sounds of dishes and utensils clanging together as the Leaving Feast was in full swing.

"As I'll ever be I suppose. Looking forward to getting back, but not looking forward to all the questions that I'm going to be asked."

James chuckled and Harry looked up at his Father questioningly. "Oh I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

"Why not?"

"Well, your loving sister may, or may not, have strongly hinted that anyone in Gryffindor annoying or harassing you with questions, will be hexed and pranked thoroughly from now until the end of the year. Then rest of your house then may, or may not, have spread the word to the rest of the school."

Harry's grin nearly split in face in half it was so wide. "I love her, I really do."

"Figured that would be your reaction. You ready to greet the masses now?"

"Yup!"

James pushed on one of the doors and it swung inward gently, revealing the rest of Hogwarts, who all had stopped what they had been doing, to stare at the door. Harry's mind flashed back to the sorting ceremony and the nervousness he had felt with all those eyes on him. All thoughts of nerves, and prophecies, and dead professors fled from his head, at the call of his friends and siblings. "Harry!"

Harry grinned again, and tossing a smile at his Father, ran to greet his friends, listening to the clapping of most of the student body, celebrating his recovery and return.

Harry was almost knocked to the floor by the force of Neville and Kestrel's combined hug. They kept him on his feet and dragged him back to the Gryffindor table, where he was greeted by his friends, and the only question he heard was 'How are you feeling?' Apparently Kestrel's threat was holding strong.

"You're just in time, mate." Ron said as he piled more food onto his plate. "Dumbledore's just about to announce the results of the House Cup."

"The Cup! What happened with Quidditch?" Harry turned to look at Neville, who managed to keep his face neutral for all of five seconds, a massive grin spread across his face, a grin that Harry matched. "Great job, Nev!"

Before Neville could answer back, Dumbledore stood from his chair behind the table and approached the dais. "Another year gone! I apologize for troubling you with an old man's wheezing waffle, before we get to partake in the special desserts that have been prepared just for tonight. What a year it has been, I hope your heads are fuller than they were when you arrived. Not to worry though, you have all summer to get them empty again for next year."

"Now as I understand it, the House Cup needs awarding and the points stand thus: in fourth place is Gryffindor with 312 points, Hufflepuff with 352, Ravenclaw with 426, and finally Slytherin at 472."

Slytherin House cheered loudly, stomping their feet and banging their goblets on the table, filling the Great Hall with noise. The rest of the school scowled disappointedly as Slytherin looked like it was going to win for the fifth year in a row.

"Yes, well done Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."

The hall fell silent as every pair of eyes turned to stare at Dumbledore, blue eyes twinkling out from behind his glasses.

"I have a few last minute points to hand out. Let's see…"

"First to Mr. Ronald Weasley," Ron's face went an odd purple colour in his embarrassment at being singled out, resembling a red topped eggplant, instead of a boy. "For the best game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor 50 points."

Gryffindor's cheers made the windows of the Hall shake and rattle in their frames. They could hear Percy, further up the table, "My brother; my youngest brother. Beat McGonagall's giant chess set!"

Dumbledore waited for silence to descend once again before continuing. "Second, to Ms. Ginerva Weasley and Ms. Kestrel Black, for the use of logic and not panicking in a crisis, I award each 25 points."

It was Kestrel's and Ginny's turns to blush then, Kestrel's hair matching the red of her face. Fred and George ruffled their younger sister's hair affectionately, then did the same to Kestrel, causing both girls to laugh and pelt the older twins with spoonfuls of peas and corn. The riot at Gryffindor table was becoming something else as they were now a hundred points up.

"Third – to Mr. Harry Potter," the room deathly quiet and all eyes turned to Harry. "For pure nerve and outstanding courage in the face of grave danger, I award Gryffindor 60 points."

The roar that accompanied that announcement was deafening, and Harry disappeared under a pile of his ecstatic housemates. Those that could add while celebrating were realizing that they were now tied with Slytherin at 472 points.

Dumbledore held up his hand and the room slowly fell silent. "Lastly, Mr. Neville Longbottom, for doing what needed to be done, even if it wasn't what he thought he should do, I award Gryffindor 15 points."

The Great Hall exploded with noise, the cheering of Gryffindor table filled the room to the rafters with their celebrating and cheering, and with a wave of his wand James, who was sitting at the Head Table between McGonagall and Flitwick, changed the banners along the wall from green and silver to scarlet and gold.

Even Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw joined in on the merriment. The only house not cheering was Slytherin. The older twins and Ginny we re-enacting the chant from the Welcome Feast, though instead of 'We got Potter,' it was 'We won the cup, we won the Cup.'"

At the head table, Professor Snape was begrudgingly shaking McGonagall's hand, a tight smile on his face. The three sibling could see him glaring at them out of the corner of their eyes as they celebrated along with the rest of their House. "Looks like he still hates us." Neville said as the plates in front of them filled with giant slices of chocolate cake.

"So back to normal then?" Kes commented as she reached for a fork.

"Exactly!"

Exam marks came out a few days later and the three siblings were more than happy with their marks, having passed with A or better, Ginny's marks were equally as good, though she got all E's and O's. Even Ron was happy with his marks, surprised that he had done so well, but knew that is was probably because he wanted to keep up with his friends. He knew at least his Mother would be pleased. Hermione was the best student in their year, which came as no surprise to anyone.

Kestrel and Ginny looked up after going over their test scores, glancing around to make sure it was just the four of them. "Well brother's mine, we have some good news."

"Oh, what's that?" Neville asked closing the Herbology text he had been reading.

"Do you remember the Marauder Journal we received at Christmas? The one with the Animagus Revealer potion in it?"

"Yes." Harry said eagerly, practically bouncing in his seat.

"We may have, while you were recovering in the Hospital Wing, got the ingredients we needed and brewed it up. It takes a week to brew, and it'll be ready after supper tonight." Ginny said a proud grin on her face.

"So…" Kestrel leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms behind her head, a cheeky grin on her face. "Who wants to meet their inner wild side?"

So after supper that night found the four friends in an abandoned toilet on the first floor. Harry and Neville were wondering why no one used this particular loo, when the ghost of a young girl swooped down at them from the top of the sinks, startling them both.

"Who are you!? Have you come to make fun of me, too?" The ghost's voice was high and kind of screechy, making Harry want to rub his ears to get the ringing out.

"It's okay Myrtle, they're with us." Kestrel said kindly, gesturing at the two confused wizard's. "These are my brother's Harry and Neville." She pointed at each one in turn.

"So you're not here to make fun of me like other boys do?"

Neville shook his head, "Of course not. We wouldn't do that, right Harry?"

"Exactly. There are much more deserving targets of our special brand of humour."

"So, you're saying I'm not good enough for you to pay attention to!"

"What? No! That's not what I'm saying at all." Harry said, trying to backtrack, to see how he could have offended the young ghost.

"No! I get it. Who cares about poor, insignificant, _undeserving_, Moaning Myrtle?" She let loose a wail, flew at Neville and Harry, who threw their arms up, unsuccessfully trying to defend themselves as Myrtle flew through their bodies, then looped around and dove into one of the toilets.

"She's mental."

"No, she's just hormonal I think. She –"

"Nope!" Neville and Harry both cut her off. Neville continued when it looked like Kestrel would continue. "We really don't need to hear anymore, thank you, Kes. Very much."

"Fine, be insensitive, male, chauvinistic pigs then." Ginny flipped her mane of red hair over her shoulder, flouncing over to a table that was set up against the far wall of the loo, next to the wall of the last stall. She pulled 4 cups she had knicked from the Great Hall and spooned equal amounts of the potion into each of them.

She handed one to each of the siblings, taking the last one for herself. "Now I remember from the Journal, that you go into a kind of trance after you drink the potion, and it's in the trance that you see your form."

"So pull up some stone, kiddies." Kestrel dropped down gracefully into a cross legged position, leaning her back against the pillar of sinks, Harry sat down next to her, and Neville and Ginny sat down with their backs to one another, holding each other up.

"Right," Harry raised his glass, and his friends joined him. "Bottoms up."

The four Gryffindor's tossed back the potion, set the cups aside, and waited for it to take effect. Before any of them could even question whether or not it was working, they dropped off into potion induced sleep one by one.

Harry:

The ground fell away beneath him, as he rose up higher and higher into a cloudless blue sky. He banked to the left, gazing at the mossy, rolling green hills of the Irish countryside sliding away beneath him as he soared through the air. A loch appeared below and he descended sharply, wings held tightly to his body. He spread his wings wide, just before he was to hit the ground, stopping his controlled fall instantly, landing gently on the green grass the edged the loch. He walked closer to the edge of the water, picking his way carefully forward, making sure his razor shop talons didn't get stuck in the marshy soil.

He reached the water's edge and took a quick drink of the clear water, before settling back and gazing at his reflection for a few moments. His head was a dark grey-blue, almost black in colour, capped over his head and down the sides, much like sideburns, under his eyes going down passed his beak to his neck and chest was cream, and his chest – what he could see in the water – was banded horizontally the same colour as his head. A quick spread and flexing of his wings revealed the same cream and dark branding on the underside, and the top was as dark as the rest of him. His eyes were black, and above his right eye was a faint white mark, the same shape as the scar that marred his own forehead.

He flexed his wings again, letting out a hunting scream, as he beat his powerful wings, lifting himself into the air, continuing on his previous journey.

Ginny:

Bright sunlight filtered through the thick canopy, scattering light on the forest floor, throwing everything into eerie shadows. A young piglet snuffled in the foliage, seeking out tasty grubs and tubers to munch on, its speckled coat helping it blend in the scattered lit clearing.

Bright gold, intense eyes peered out from between the fronds of a giant magnolia plant, its large fragrant red flowers hiding the scent of the beast, prowling from the shadows. She stalked forward on wide, silent feet, her own dappled coat helping her blend into the clearing, just as easily as her prey in front of her was.

The piglets head shot up, and before it had a chance to even fathom fleeing, the small jungle cat pounced, razor sharp claws extended for the kill. The swine squealed once, shrilly, then fell eerily silent as powerful jaws clamped around its neck, silencing it forever.

Neville:

Large paws, with claws that extended well passed his feet, crunched the fallen autumn leaves beneath the massive beast that they supported. He could hear the rushing and roaring of a nearby river through a copse of trees and bushes, and his stomach gurgled and growled with hunger. He lumbered through the bush, leaves and branches crunching and snapping under his bulk, the dark brown fur of his feet stood out starkly against the bright colours of the fallen leaves.

He breached the tree line and the sound of the river crashed over him. The wet smell of stone, earth, and fur overtaking his senses. The river was teeming with madly leaping fish, as they made their way to their spawning grounds. Bears stood on rocks and lined the banks, massive paws and powerful jaws, snagging and snapping fish left and right. Gorging themselves in preparation for hibernation.

He approached the bank, his immense paws sinking into the mud at the water's edge. He went perfectly still as he stared at the churning water, waiting patiently for his chance to strike and join in on the feast.

Kestrel:

A cloudless night sky, a new moon, with only the stars providing light, the sound of a brook gently gurgling, and the musk of prey. All of these things were taken in as she gazed down at the valley below, amber eyes not missing a single detail, furred ears flicking back and forth, and nostrils flaring taking in the scents and sounds of the world around her.

A lone howl sounded from further down in the valley, her ears snapped forward and her posture went from relaxed, but watchful, to full alert. Another howl rose up, signalling prey found, and the rest of the pack took up the call. '_You are heard, help is coming._' She leapt down from her perch, making her way down the valley slope at a swift trot. Other figures joined her on her decent; her pack, her family, joining her in the hunt to come.

The four friends slowly came out of their potion induced dreams, shaking their heads to rid themselves of the cob-webby feeling that clouded their thoughts. Neville was the first to recover and slowly climbed to his feet, using the pewter sink next to him to pull himself up. He squinted at the oddly shaped knob, but his mind was still to foggy to even attempt to figure out what the shape was. He reached over and gave Ginny a hand up. She rubbed her temples a pained look on her face. "You okay Gin?"

"Yes, fine, just a bit of a headache is all. It's already passing."

"It must be a side-effect of the potion." Kestrel grumbled as she and Harry helped each other stand. "I have one as well."

"So what did everyone see?" Harry asked eagerly once they had cleaned up any evidence of a potion having been brewed and were safely on their way back to the Tower. "I'm some type of falcon I think, I'll have to look through the Library to find out the exact species."

Kestrel grinned proudly, bouncing on the balls of her feet as the ascended the last staircase before the Tower, "I'm a wolf."

"Bear. Brown or Grizzly, I'm not positive which though."

They turned to look at Ginny who still looked confused. "I'm some type of small predatory cat I think. If I described it to you Kes, do you think you could draw it?"

"I should be able to, yes."

"Brilliant, I can send it to Charlie and he should be able to identify it for me, if I can't find it out on my own. Would after dinner tonight work for you?"

Kestrel nodded as Harry gave the password to the Fat Lady, "Victory."

The Hogwarts Steam engine's whistle screamed as it pulled into King's Cross station. Kestrel was folding their warning letters, which explained that students were expressly forbidden from preforming magic over the summer holidays, into paper birds and charming them to fly.

"Kes!"

"Don't you Kes me, Neville Longbottom, we aren't at home yet, the train is considered a part of Hogwarts. So technically I am still at Hogwarts, and therefore until I step off this train I am allowed to do magic." She stabbed her wand at him, an impish grin on her face, Neville's hair slowly stated to stand on end.

He shot her an annoyed glance as he drew is own wand and tapped his head, hair instantly dropping back into place. "Mature, Black."

"I'm eleven mate, it's expected for me to be immature."

"She's got you there, Nev."

Neville sighed at the antics of his siblings and turned a pained expression towards Ginny. "Don't look at me for help Longbottom, you've me the twins."

Whatever Neville was going to say, was drowned out by a final wail of the Steam Engines whistle, and the locomotive lurched to a stop. They helped each one another get their trunks down from the overhead rack and waited for the sea of students departing the train to slow.

They met Tonks on the way out, whose hair was currently a bright Easter egg blue. She'd passed her NEWT's with the marks she needed to get into the Auror Academy. "Wotcher munchkins!"

"Wotcher Tonks! You getting a lift back with us or is Aunt Andy or Uncle Ted getting you?"

"With you guys according the Owl mum sent this morning."

"Excellent!" Kes bounced out of the train in happiness, her trunk bouncing along behind her. Tonks was by far her favourite cousin and once she reached her OWL year she had less time to spend with her younger cousins, devoting herself to her studies in the hopes of getting into the Academy.

Before anything else could be said there was a raucous shout from deep within the crowd, followed by several shouts of annoyance. The five all turned as one to see what the disturbance was, and burst into laughter when a giant shaggy black wolfhound came barreling out of the crowd, making its way to them, barking joyously in greeting.

The three siblings both dropped their trunks and ran to greet Padfoot, whom Neville and Kes hadn't seen since the Quirrellmort incident, and Harry hadn't seen since Christmas holidays. The laughed as Padfoot bounded around them in circles. Between one leap and the next he changed from giant dog to man, and swept the three of them into a hug. He released them suddenly and treated Tonks to the same exuberant greeting.

He ruffled her blue hair and dropped an arm around her shoulder, "I hear congratulations are in order, little cousin. The Auror Academy, brilliant!"

Thanks, Sirius."

"Party at Longbottom Manor to celebrate your success. Your parents will be joining us once they're done at work."

"Brilliant!"

Sirius and Tonks went about shrinking the three siblings luggage, while they said their good-byes to Ginny and their friends. "Harry will probably be grounded for at least half of the summer, because of the Invisibilty Cloak thing." Harry sighed in defeat and Kes patted his shoulder in sympathy. "But we'll write and let you know when Harry has his freedom again and we should get together over the summer."

Ginny nodded eagerly. "Yes, please. As much as I love The Burrow, there's only so much there that a witch can entertain herself with."

Ginny's attention was drawn away when her Mother called for her. She had a hand on Ron's shoulder and seemed to be scolding the Twins over one thing or another.

"Well that looks like it's my cue. You better write," she wagged a finger under her friend's noses, a teasing grin on her face. "Or else."

"Or else what, Weasley?"

"You'll just have to wait and see, won't you."

**And DONE!  
>Thank you everyone for reading, all the favourites, and the reviews. They really helped me get my act together and finally finish this story. The last line is a bit cheesy, and I apologize for that, ending scenes are a weakness of mine.<br>So I do have plans of doing the other books with the Neo-Marauders and company. There will be more pranks from both groups in the next book, but I do have a question, two really to ask you all.**

**1. I want to bring Luna into the series, and I have a couple ideas on that, but would like to hear your thoughts on it.**  
><strong>2. The Dursley's. Would you like to see them come into the story or if I should leave them out of it. Again, I have a few thoughts on how I could bring them in, the story also progresses well without them. I do like hearing your thoughts on things though.<strong>

**So let me know what you think, and things you would like to see happen in the next book(s), also anything that you have questions about, things you think I overlooked, did not explain well, mysteries that you have questions about (I may answer those I may not ;) ) or even if you just eant to leave me an awesome/or not so awesome review. I accept any and all helpful critiques.**

**Again, thank you for reading and reviewing.**


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